Jade Raymond, onetime producer on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, is now leading Ubisoft Toronto as managing director, guiding the studio to a new IP. But this won’t just be another Assassin’s per-se, as the studio is also looking into the social space.
Social game elements don’t have to be scary to developers, she said in her brief Gamasutra-attended talk at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas.
Halo veteran Marcus Lehto's studio, Ridgeline, will now be joined by DICE on the project.
There's something a little different about PlayStation's plan to acquire Haven Studios. Historically, Sony likes to have a little dating period with a developer, where they might release a few games together before they get married. It's what happened with Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Media Molecule, Insomniac and Housemarque. Yet Sony announced its partnership with Haven a little over a year ago. The developer may be full of established faces who are responsible for hit games such as Assassin's Creed, but it's still a new studio. It's still growing. It's not even announced the PS5 game it's working on, let alone released it. So why do the deal now?
"Obviously we will always carry on making these single-player narrative-based games such as Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, and Horizon Forbidden West," Hulst emphasises.
That's good.
I think Sony slept on FromSoftware (after demon souls success)!
I wonder if Sony is looking to purchase a Japanese dev that would be cool. I expected them to buy Level-5 in PS3 days but now they are publisher. I love and prefer Single player games :)
@Terry
It is my understanding that Japanese companies doesn't usually buy each other and that mergers are far more common. Like Square-Enix or Bandai-Namco.
FromSoftware isn’t an independent studio though, so Sony would’ve needed to purchase them from their parent company. It’s owned by a Japanese media/entertainment company, or something along the lines of that, and they’ve owned FromSoftware since before Demons Souls if my memory serves correct.
But also:
“ The Haven acquisition will continue Sony's investment in live service and multiplayer games. ”
This is all part of money already spent which is being announced now. There is still a 10+ billion dollar question that will be answered
solideagle
Sony actually recently invested in the parent company that owns from software who btw made the request to Sony to invest
Terry_B
Sony usually invests like they did with square enix when they were going through a rough patch. They asked Sony to buy the shares and once things stabilized Sony sold back the shares
Japanese publishers are every different. Sony or Nintendo could buy anyone but that's a different culture over there and it makes it next to impossible for an outsider to buy a Japanese publisher
https://www.videogameschron...
Sony is looking to buy big. My guess is they will target Capcom and square enix. But just like Ms Sony won't make all games exclusives. I think times are changing and we will see more cross platform support from both which is great
There will still be must have exclusives but some games are too big to keep away from others
I think spreading out the acquisition portoflio between established and growing is not a bad idea.
A company with confidence in their values can acquire noobs and instill those values.
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Well I’m sure all the acquisition going on in the industry motivated Sony to pull the trigger. But funny how quick Jade was willing to sell. Not even one game under the new studio. I think they must of been angling for this from the get go.
Sony must be betting big on this game to buy this studio so quickly.
Makes me even more curious to see what exactly it is.
I think this is the supposed first 'terobyte' game whatever that means. As long as it doesn't require 1000 gigs of space on the SDD lets do it lol. In all seriousness, It SOUNDS like some kind of MMO.
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If they make money from these games it’s fine with me if it’s helping find the single player stuff . I do t like live service as I do t have the time to play these never ending games and usually the quality is lesser than you desire . When I was younger I loved Everquest and FF11 but those are MMOs they are slightly different but are still live service imo. If they make a great hardcore VRMMO or MMO like EQ when I retire im in !
Jade Raymond’s new studio is reportedly set to work closely with PlayStation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny on its debut game.
One of the ten games as a service games PlayStation mentioned?
I’m bored of how much online is playing into games now. Offline games still should exist in equal measure.
PlayStation has plenty of offline single player IPs out and in the pipeline, they're not dissappearing.
It seems likely to me that some those online games they speak of will be split among PS5, PC and mobile. People seem to forget how much money those phone games make.
Anything with Mark Cerny's technical eye cast over it has my attention though, so I look forward to finding out more about this one from him and Haven Studios.
Thank you. People act like they can have online games as a law or somehow it prevents them from making single player games which it clearly doesn't. Just in the pipeline we have Horizen FW, God of War, Spiderman 2 and Wolverine. They already released Reternal, Demon Soluls, Spideman MM, Rachet and Clank and probably more that I'm missing. These things exist, we don't have to speculate or let ourselves be trapped into some group thought. The idea that they ababdoned SP games suddenly is a fantasy from a blog that is trying to generate drama.
Third party studios would be best served if they made multiplayer games open to all platforms for the sake of the longevity of the game. I understand first party doing pc + one console because they own the studio. Still interested in what they are making but it’s going to be a looong while.
I agree. Offline games or offline modes should always be available. This online only obsession with every dev lately is going to ruin gaming as a whole imo.
I agree %110 , but Destiny changed my perspective on seamless online gameplay , but it's still considered one of its kind , nothings like it and that's far from enough to prove itself as a solid argument.
I have my online games, but the never ending progress in them means that you can’t really swap between games as often as we would like.
I would cite influence advertising as part of the problem. With even single player games being affected by the way gaming “engagement” is perceived.
I’m playing Sifu at the moment on PS5 and Max Payne 3 on Series X. Even the quality of how the games are produced is lessening because of how much studios are trying to appeal to influencers more than customers. Max Payne 3 is a game. It can be hard, it can be easy. Regardless, it’s polished to a mirror shine.
Sifu has great combat and is satisfying to play, but the roguelite stuff within (solely designed to appeal to Twitch players, like the genre as a whole) is a major bummer. People are currently arguing vision. Whether or not the game should be made easier due to how the difficulty doesn’t mesh with some people. Difficult games are fine, but they’ve got to be designed well. Sifu isn’t really. It’s a victim of the roguelite dragon the studio has been chasing. This is a game that deserves to be easier to play, something tells me that they’ve only kept the difficulty high to advertise it on the fact that people will be repeating levels a lot in their time spent playing the game.
The ironic thing about difficulty is the sense of identity people both feel for themselves and feel of the devs, when the devs are arguably going against their own identities by chasing trends.
The issues I have with Sifu starts with multiplayer games. The game itself is arguable an MP game due to how many people watch it on Twitch.
Just because people watch a game on Twitch doesn't mean it's a multi-player game. This whole post is just some projected nonsense.
Roguelites created for streamers? What?
Sounds like you just don't understand what roguelike and roguelite games are all about.
@SenorFartCushion
Budget is king , the sad truth about generational leap is being overrated and easily overshadowed by its budget, a triple a game from the last decade or two still holds itself and get liked the way it looked more than its technicality behind it.
Offline is the core of the significant majority of PS exclusives on the PS4. It's time for them to build online communities that fans can play and enjoy in-between the waits for these big AAA releases.
I'm all for all 10 of them.
1. Bungies New IP
2. Faction 2 (The Last of Us)
3. Twisted Metal Online (rumored)
4. Guerrilla Games other IP (rumored SOCOM)
5. Deviant Games New IP (former Black Ops COD devs)
6. Haven Studios New IP (Jade Raymond and former Ubisoft devs)
7. Firewalk Studios New IP (former Bungie, Take-2, Activision, EA devs)
8.
9.
10.
So by all means bring them on.
Obviously that’s good. But can you not follow the patterns that literally every other company has been making these last few years? Games as a service multiplayer games are made mostly to rid ones catalogue of any single player only games
@Senor
That's a baseless point. There are significantly more companies that continue to produce single-player experiences, than there are companies that have dropped single-player completely to rid their catalogue of any single player only games. This is fear mongering.
Someone said this best a while ago in a PS Group. Sony is the AAA Blockbuster Film / HBO of gaming. They create premium high quality content. That has allowed them to make a huge comeback during the PS360Wii era, dominate the home console market during the PS4XBOWiiU era, and is what will continue to carry them into the PS5 generation and beyond. How many single player games have they released for the PS5 compared to Live Service games. How many single player games got cancelled for a live service game?
4 of the 7 known Live Service games are from 2nd party developers, so where is this concern from single player games coming from. Naughty Dog is making Factions.....And they've made several multiplayers before without it affecting their single player narrative driven games. Firesprite is a brand new developer under PlayStation, so there shouldn't be any AAA single player expectation on them to begin with, people were just talking about how this is a VR studio and okay with it, but have a potential issue with them working on service games. Guerrilla is releasing Forbidden West this month A single player game, with a Horizon VR exclusive later this year (also likely single player), so why is it a problem that they have a team working on something else multiplayer / GaaS based.
This fear mongering needs to stop.
PS Gamers praise Sony for their first party and the amazing narratives they play and create with their IPs. Why are they so fixated on holding them back from attempting to do the same in a multiplayer space. If you don't like playing online then don't. Destiny is an example of one you don't really have to, and that's a 5 year old experience now. Let them learn and grow in the Online space, just like they did in the Single Player Space.
People say all the time, I want Bloodborne for PS5 or Bloodborne 2. Well in a Ongoing world, they could still be getting new content from Bloodborne to this day, have new content launch each year, have an option where you and friends can take on a Raid Boss, and so much more. What is the fear in this?
Stop the fear mongering and just say you don't like multiplayer / online games, and these games aren't for you and move on. But there are millions of PS gamers who want to enjoy games like these and want to see Sony's first party blend narrative and world building into AAA online experiences. The PS3 had significantly more multiplayer experiences than the PS4 from Sony studios and the PS4 was a significantly more successful and online focused console. That has to change, because gamers are going online more.
I welcome both, for single players, just from from first party alone we have Horizon Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok, Spidermen 2, Wolverine, I am sure naughty dog is working on a single player game on top of the fiction MP game too.
If some good online games can help keep PlayStation's cash flow more healthy, then so be it, whatever keeps the ship afloat for my single player experiences.
Agreed! The only way I see online is okay for me is something like Dark Souls where it's a part of the gameplay and lore system. I'm an offline games person.
Example: I was playing the other day Shadow Hearts 2 on PS3 Phat (using bilinear filtering and upscaled image + TVs black insertion frame and upscaler + sharpening etc.) and me and my wife were blown away by the writing, animation, graphics, and music. Can't believe some games on PS1-PS2 era are better than the ones today when you have all the technology in the world, and everything is online and connected. We are rapidly collecting old games to play, particularly the gems we didn't have time or a chance to play. These games take our weekends away more so than the modern ones. Maybe we are old, but they just suck us right in vs the new games which feel like a polished turd of a product.
could not agree more. I'm sick of online games, MMOBA and anything in that vein. gaming is getting way too big and as a result is making way too much trend chasing trash
Offline games DO still exist in more than equal measure. I don't think that is going away.
I agree with everyone who wants a slew of offline traditional games...
But.... Online games persistent ones and those with dreaded micro transactions battle passes etc make more money it as simple as that
It's a shame but those days of of purchasing a game with all content on her etc are now gone. Ironicly Nintendo are closest to old school style games
What about Demon's Souls? Returnal? Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart? Horizon Zero Dawn? God of War?
And up next Horizon Forbidden West?
Those are the rare exceptions made only by Sony. Let’s hope they continue to make those unique experiences for much longer and not change to these online only type games.
Moriarty
His point is that Sony studios are also keeping the hope alive not only Nintendo.
They might sell more copies but they don’t always make as much profit. But I agree that they need multiple ways to fill the funnel. Live service games and single player type games
@moriart1889
Mario, Zelda, Doom, Ori, Resident Evil, Souls Games, Devil may Cry, Far Cry, Doom, and hundreds of others.
What about Starfield, Avowed, Hellblade II, ES6, Fable, As Dusk Falls, Everwild...
Many Switch games have paid DLC, like Breath of the Wild, Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Animal Crossing New Horizons.
Not only that but certain Nintendo Digital only games get limited releases on purpose to inflate the price.
Surely you have something to share by now, concept art at the very least.
I find it really hard to get excited about a game where all I know is that it will be an online game which is not even a great selling point to me, actually makes me less excited.
Click.
Hmmm wonder what their new ip is???
"Social permission is about the permission to talk to your friends in this space – keeping friendships going through small interactions."
ummm i can do that when i go to work/school/out on the town
when i play a game i wanna play a game and get away from the stress and drama of the real world thank you
no they arent
man!! just one night wit her... b@@ty soft montreal