Sony Cutting Down On Funding For Its European Studios

Game developer studios from Europe such as the London Studio, Evolution Studios and Studio Liverpool can face project cancellations from Sony’s PS3 as the publisher aims to back this year’s exclusives with more resources. At the moment a number of high profile exclusive titles are coming up for release on Sony’s PlayStation 3 with some of these exclusives already having been released. These titles include Killzone 3, Little Big Planet 2 and SOCOM 4. However, it looks as if Sony has had to sacrifice a portion of the games coming in from its European studios to get this strong list of first party titles.

[guigsy]

I think you will start to see studio mergers within Sony. Evolution and Sony Liverpool would probably be a good match.

[Dante112]

Cool, if they're doing it to focus on their first party games development. Though I hope some games are just canned instead of discarded.

[Iamback]

They should merge and return old name and logo "psygnosis"!
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Shadow Flare]

Psygnosis were the best. They were so prolific in the ps1 days. They made lots of games with lots of variety with good quality. And then they turned to studio Liverpool and have done nothing really compared. Formula One and Wipeout is all I can think of. We need the old psygnosis back. Colony wars, destruction derby, g police, rollcage, wipeout... they did so much

[Vojkan]

Yes true, but some of us that played games in late 80s early 90s, remember PSygnosis for making Nitro, Shadow of the beast and many more that I can't remember atm. Anyone who had Atari or Amiga computers remembers Shadow of the Beast.
They were one of the best developers around. Why the Sony changed their name and logo, I'll never understand

[DualConsoleOwner]

no one is getting laid of or anything...

they are still hiring developers to help with the other projects...

[Vojkan]

No one is getting "laid" buahahhaa

[Anon1974]

^^^^ Is there some sort of Google translator I can find somewhere to decipher what you just said? Try English next time.

Wait - I found a translator that seems to work. That post roughly translates to "Troll troll troll. Troll de troll troll."

Edit - Holy crap, look at that guy's posting history. Brand new account and straight away it's doing nothing but attempting to piss off people off. I honestly think something's gotta be wrong with the brains of someone who spends his time trying to flame like this. There should be a hotline or something so these people can get help. How the hell do they even function IRL? Sad.

[HappyGaming]

The further down a consoles life you get the cheaper is should become to produce equally as good games right?

[sikbeta]

@wace_me

Wow dude, you get bubbles for trolling? quit already, for hating so much the PS3, you give it so much attention, you don't have anything better to do with you life and you preferred gaming platform?

O-T

I'm waiting for the getaway 3 and please don't discard anything, I keep hoping for 8 days to come out...

[pixelsword]

DOOOOOOOOOOOMED!

*runs for 'da hillz"

[stuntman_mike]

@vojkan

I remeber those days well, the amiga was and still is one of my all time favorites. and psygnosis was an excellent studio back then, shadow of the beast was excellent i think they done turrican aswell amongst others and a few footie games too.

i was wondering about these cut backs and if it has anything to do with this LG thing, maybe it hit SONY harder than we thought. or it could be just a bit of re-stratergising on SONY half..?

[Starhawk]

My guess is that they cancelled some Move games.

I think they need a flagship title for it, and Sorcery might be it.

[Vherostar]

Once the exclusives sell millions and help shift more consoles the funding will return.

[lee_ten]

wace_me, you're on a roll today. what, no games to play?

all the people who cried about ps3 fanboys aren't even here to see the rampant tirade of trolls in ps3 articles. gee, i wonder why.

[dabri5]

I wouldn't be surprised if funding priority is shifting toward next gen resources.

[Iamback]

Yesterday I wrote that I miss Phil Harrison.
Since that Japanese (Shu Yoshueida or whatever) guy took over he has been cutting PS3 projects left and right. First thing he did was to cut 8 Days and GetAway. BTW- where is full disc Whipeout that was on the way while Phil was there? O yeah cut for EyePet. If Phil stayed on his position we would be looking for sequel of those games. What a shame.
Uncharted, Infamous, Resistance, Motorstorm, LBP, you name it, those are all IPs that Phil green lighted for production.
Japanese guy hasn't done anything other then to live on Phils products.

EDIT: Could ... that disagreed explain on what facts he disagrees? thx

[EYEamNUMBER1]

never thought about that

[Vojkan]

Early version and yet cover system looks awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[undercovrr]

Very good point. I don't know why Phil left, IMO he (and Sony) would have been much better off it he stayed.

[stuntman_mike]

I agree about this yoshida fellow, all his done so far is cut developing on a lot of things, i'd like to know what his green lighted, maybe he will make a push on the NGP and concentrate on that?

[Death]

It's funny how I can refer to Sonys own financial reports and get disagrees. Sony has not posted an annual profit from their games division since the PS3 launched. They have done a tremendous job reducing loses and should show their first annual results in the black when they release the report soon.

Sony does not gave unlimited funds. This is why they have struggled with marketing and securing third party exclusives. First party studios that aren't making money will always be an issue regardless which platform owns them. This doesn't mean Sony sucks or are doomed, but it is relevant to where they are today.

-Death

[InLaLaLand]

I hope they join MM.

[Cajun Chicken]

Don't f**king even TOUCH Studio Liverpool.

[midgard227]

NEXT GEN ROLLCAGE PLZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cajun Chicken]

YES. YES SO DAMN MUCH.

[TheMART]

Pfew good to read Media Molecule isn't one of them. I want a new LBP at launch on my NGP by then!

Psychnosis though I loved that studio back in the days of the Amiga 500 great games, superior visuals...

[Apotheosize]

These are the guys who make singstar and eyepet, hopefully instead of making those games they focus on big titles

[Dogs_PinoyPOOD]

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

[SoapShoes]

Um, you realize these are probably only a few projects out of the grand scheme of things? They aren't cutting down on funding, just cutting projects that they feel aren't going well. This has happened since Sony started making Playstations and it happens with pretty much every publisher.

[Azianphil88]

still hoping for some announcement on Eight Days and The Getaway

[hellzsupernova]

hopefully they realised singstar and eyepet are bad and said well lets cut ehir sequals. guy from euroSony "hey guys you still got the getaway and 8 days lying around?" other guy "yeah?" "sweet lets finish them!"

XD

[khamvongsa09]

They should just merge a bunch of studios together to make even better games. Saving would mean more games. Well, in theory anyways..

[danthebios]

Could this also be because of the court thingy with l.g?Just my opinion.

[skrug]

Prob more related to Japan's Quake

[sway__z]

I feel the funding should go into advertising the upcoming stellar line up of exclusives. More people need to be made aware of what this beast can do!

Seeing 8 days release would be good!

[isalas011981]

I could be that they know they need raise their numbers in North America so they are providing funds (focusing) on games that appeal to the Western market. I am sure no company is content being in third in any given industry. Specially if you've dominiated for the past 15 + years.

[bunfighterii]

As long as we keep getting quality stuff out of Sony first part I'm happy.