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Jeff Grubb: Concord Responsible For PlayStation’s Latest Live-Service Cancellations

Calverz

Gold Member
Sony simply can’t afford to just churn out big budget AAA single player only games. They need to strike a balance and have failed to do this thus far.
 

Scrawnton

Member
Sony simply can’t afford to just churn out big budget AAA single player only games. They need to strike a balance and have failed to do this thus far.
Or reassess their entire pipeline, identify weak points in production, focus in on what's causing their budgets to bloat and make that efficient or cut it.

If it's just graphics that's causing the budgets to skyrocket, then scale things back. Nintendo games graphically quality is nowhere close to Sony's but first party Switch games are selling laps around Sony's software and at full price without console bundles padding the sales.

As much as Sony fanboys may hate to hear it, the type of game Sony has forced all their studios to make (third person action with a hyper focus on real graphics, realistic animation, mocap, and cutscenes) is what's causing their games to be unsustainable. It's time to pull the plug on that and completely reassess the types of games they need to make.
 

Calverz

Gold Member
Or reassess their entire pipeline, identify weak points in production, focus in on what's causing their budgets to bloat and make that efficient or cut it.

If it's just graphics that's causing the budgets to skyrocket, then scale things back. Nintendo games graphically quality is nowhere close to Sony's but first party Switch games are selling laps around Sony's software and at full price without console bundles padding the sales.

As much as Sony fanboys may hate to hear it, the type of game Sony has forced all their studios to make (third person action with a hyper focus on real graphics, realistic animation, mocap, and cutscenes) is what's causing their games to be unsustainable. It's time to pull the plug on that and completely reassess the types of games they need to make.
Exactly. But this is the problem they have created for themselves. Their fanbase now expect this level of quality and graphical fidelity for almost everything and it’s just not sustainable. I said to a mate a while back that I the industry is likely going to scale back to AA and your big AAA will be few and far between. Likely reserved for GAAS or live service titles.
 

Saber

Member
If this happened because of Concord I can only assume those live services followed the same lead as Concord, with ugly designs, stupid names and normalazing forced agendas.
Gigantic waste of resources. This should be more than enought to Sony Japan start the swipe and clean and dimish Sony of America power.
 
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If this happened because of Concord I can only assume those live services followed the same lead as Concord, with ugly designs, stupid names and normalazing forced agendas.
Gigantic waste of resources. This should be more than enought to Sony Japan start the swipe and clean and dimish Sony of America power.


This was one of the canceled ones long ago. Imagine the kind of trash the others have been producing. I wish there were leaks on them.

s7YrJGw.png
 
They missed the first part with most of these games and went way to big too start. HD2 being the exception. They should have put less all in one basket and filter out to different design ideas and let the game grow naturally. It’s how all the other live service games grew.

I mean Fornite was a lower budget base building game before it almost died. The orginal first mode of battle royal was barebones half broken game. But it did enough right to get its footing. The game didn’t even have anything to buy the first few weeks.

Start small makes changes in feedback early. Some will fall but some would have a chance to grow organically.
Sure but HD2 was not a game ordered and designed by a woke commitee. HD2 is the sequel to HD1 which is a passionate projet done before Sony acquisition. They just got lucky by buying the studio before the release of the sequel. Totally different story than most of those games done by SP teams or designed by commitee to appeal to the modern audience.
 

OGM_Madness

Member
I know this timeline is not the brightest, but imagine an alternate timeline where, instead of Concord, Sony made Marvel Rivals, big butts and all. They see the numbers, and instead of coming to the conclusion that players love big butts, they say “gamers like loot boxes and battle passes more than we ever thought!” And canceled all their single-player games to focus on 12 new live service games, from Medievil Battle-Royale to World of Astro Bot.
 
Sure but HD2 was not a game ordered and designed by a woke commitee. HD2 is the sequel to HD1 which is a passionate projet done before Sony acquisition. They just got lucky by buying the studio before the release of the sequel. Totally different story than most of those games done by SP teams or designed by commitee to appeal to the modern audience.

You want to appeal to the largest audience to can. Woke or anti-woke has nothing to do with it. Fortnite appeals to all and is the largest game out there. You think if they just targeted the crowd that plays HD2 only it would be just as successful?
 
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Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
PS4 gen Sony seemed like they could do no wrong but come to this gen it’s like they don’t even know who they are anymore or their audience. A shame people like Andrew House, Jack, Shu, all have left PlayStation to a bunch of utter incompetent clowns.
That's why I tell you... Next is Druckmann, for the sake of the gamers and their dignity... We must hit Intergalatic's trash.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
Firewalk fought the good fight.

By impersonating DEI, and creating a faux Toxic environment and purposely squandering Sony's budget on a bad game they pretty caused the ripple effect needed to get all this DEI, and all this GaaS shit out of the gaming industry.

The Professor meanwhile, showed her true colors:

324a2983-7966-4827-807b-d898c2c4f5cd.sized-1000x1000.jpg
 

mdkirby

Gold Member
good-great.gif

Now go make games that people want to play, instead of chasing the golden goose
They had the golden goose, they stopped nurturing it after they saw a bigger golden goose and most the camp went chasing it. In the meantime they left one unstable guy alone with the old goose who would occasional beat it with a stick making it pop out an occasional slightly broken egg. When the rest of the camp finally caught the bigger shiny golden goose, they found it was just covered in gold coloured paint. They returned to camp to find a badly abused and withered golden goose who now struggles to lay eggs, takes ages, and when it does they are small and a little disappointing.
 
Sony will struggle this generation because they lost their ability to make multiplayer games.

Meanwhile Mario Kart 9 with PS4 graphics will sell 60 millions of copies.

I can see that comparison. The thing with Big N is, even at my age, there's just something about Nintendo first-party. They don't really ever go for graphical flare, but their games like Mario Kart just have that "fun factor" that has been with them for generations and virtually no other company can equal.

It's a different type of "fun factor" than other heavy hitter top rated games we play. Whether it's powered by nostalgia or Nintendo just knows how to do the right fun for all ages perfectly, who knows..

That being said, Astro Bot was the closest I've experienced that same sense of fun, magic and wonder outside of Nintendo. So there is potential.
 

Killer8

Member
Posted this half a year ago in another thread, we can now add a few things to the list:

Concord one of the worst bombs in years.

Helldivers II lost 90% of its players in 6 months.

Layoffs, cancellations and restructuring at Bungie.

The Last of Us Factions cancelled.

Destruction AllStars bombed.

puiNXzc.jpeg




It's over for Sony GaaS.

youtube the evil is defeated GIF

Concord refunded and studio closed. Near total financial loss.

Not one but two live service games being developed by Firesprite cancelled in favor of Until Dawn 2.

Sony Bend's live service game cancelled (*valued at a quarter of a billion according to ex-manager Jeff Ross).

Bluepoint's God of War live service game cancelled.

Shuhei Yoshia recently saying on the record that he would've resisted the live service push if he was still at Sony.


I repeat: IT IS OVER FOR SONY GAAS.

What do they even have left in the tank? Fairgame$ (which I predict will be radically changed before release), and Marathon?

It's almost as if the market has spoken that flooding it with so many live service titles is unsustainable!
 

AfroRonin

Neo Member
It boggles my mind how Sony had all these teams working on live service games and yet they seemingly had no good long term plan for Last of Us Factions, the one game out of all of them with a real chance of being successful. At the very least it had something Concord didn't; an aesthetic and gameplay style that wasn't just derivative of stuff that was already on the market.
 

Neilg

Member
I mean,

Its like calling a bomb disposal dude when there's already a crater. The guy has a shitshow soon as he stepped in. I'm sure Sony management understands.
Yeah he's the one making the decision to cancel the rest of them. Acting like he's the problem is missing the forest for the trees.

It was a big misstep, everyone can see, and they're course correcting. It'll take a few years to get back on track but at least they're changing course.
 

Fbh

Member
Weird, because the defence force on Gaf told me it was a small inconsequential game for Sony, like a Destruction Allstars, and it was made with a budget of a $5 Walmart gift card.
Either way at least something good came out of it.


Jade Raymond and Fairgame$ team right now

Nervous The Big Bang Theory GIF

Nah, they are a AAA Canadian studio under Sony
They are probably like
"Ok guys I think we need to double down on the purple smoke, also make the body type B person on the cover more plus size and please tell our contact at SBI we need the scrip for the promotional animated shorts ASAP...it's a multiplayer game guys, people have burning questions abound the gender and sexual orientation of the characters!!"
 

wipeout364

Member
I don’t understand why Sony doesn’t make an extraction shooter with SOCOM or resistance. Also a hero shooter with their IP( Jak, Daxter, Rachet, Clank, Drake Sully etc),. They must be FTP though and launch on PC simultaneously.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Sure but HD2 was not a game ordered and designed by a woke commitee. HD2 is the sequel to HD1 which is a passionate projet done before Sony acquisition. They just got lucky by buying the studio before the release of the sequel. Totally different story than most of those games done by SP teams or designed by commitee to appeal to the modern audience.
Sony doesnt own Arrowhead Studios. They are still independent. Although all their games seem focused on PC and PS only. So they are ripe for an acquisition offer by Sony.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Given Sony's trend how they do sequels for their big SP games, those need 10M copies to get a sequel and new IPs (like Intergalactic) need to be that kind of blockbuster game to get green lit.

Maybe Helldivers 2 is the new threshold or else it doesn't releases. Hence, why there's been 7-8 cancellations where half of them are the past year. If it doesn't look like it'll hit 10M+ users like H2 then scrap it. Go big or go home.
 
Weird, because the defence force on Gaf told me it was a small inconsequential game for Sony, like a Destruction Allstars, and it was made with a budget of a $5 Walmart gift card.
Either way at least something good came out of it.




Nah, they are a AAA Canadian studio under Sony
They are probably like
"Ok guys I think we need to double down on the purple smoke, also make the body type B person on the cover more plus size and please tell our contact at SBI we need the scrip for the promotional animated shorts ASAP...it's a multiplayer game guys, people have burning questions abound the gender and sexual orientation of the characters!!"
Let's stop with the hyperbole. No one even suggested it was a cheap game. What people are saying is this estimate of its ever ballooning budget is just completely ridiculous and getting to absurd levels.

Initially people were saying it was $150M, with an insider saying it was more like $180M-$200M. Then it jumped to costing Sony $400M directly, mostly because a statement from the previous owners of the dev team saying they were committed to spending $200M across ALL of theit studios. I've even seen some people suggest it cost $600M+. I can't wait til we hit $1B.

The truth is a lot of the budget was already spent before Sony even acquired the company. I'm sure Sony still spent a pretty penny on it continuing to be developed, but nowhere near the ridiculous $400M some "insider" reported. In the end, it failed, like everyone and their mother knew it would, and Sony is taking a tax write-off for it. I think Sony, like some others, are starting to see the writing on the wall. Woke don't pay the bills.
 

AmuroChan

Member
If it's just graphics that's causing the budgets to skyrocket, then scale things back. Nintendo games graphically quality is nowhere close to Sony's but first party Switch games are selling laps around Sony's software and at full price without console bundles padding the sales.

That's simply not possible for any other company besides Nintendo. PlayStation fans were literally mad that puddles in Spider-Man didn't look realistic enough, or that using the same boat animation in GoW:R was a cardinal sin. Nintendo has the IP brand power that Sony can only dream of. Nintendo can make a PS3-quality game, slap the Mario or Zelda name on the box, and it will sell 20 million copies. There's not a single active IP that PlayStation owns that is universally loved like Mario or Zelda.
 

Hudo

Member
I hope they either fucking cancel Marathon or force Bungie to stop being retarded and make a single-player campaign for it that is actually worthy of a Marathon game.

They can keep their shitty PvE-Extraction stuff as a separate multi-player mode.
 
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