[Jason Schreier] Sony’s Obsession with Blockbusters is Stirring Unrest in the PlayStation Empire

[iceberg_is_on_fire]

Sony’s Obsession With Blockbusters Is Stirring Unrest Within PlayStation Empire

Sony Corp.’s Visual Arts Service Group has long been the unsung hero of many hit PlayStation video games. The San Diego-based operation helps finish off games designed at other Sony-owned studios with animation, art or other content and development. But about three years ago, a handful of influential figures within the Visual Arts Service Group decided they wanted to have more creative control and lead game direction rather than being supporting actors on popular titles such as Spider-Man and Uncharted.

Michael Mumbauer, who founded the Visual Arts Service Group in 2007, recruited a group of about 30 developers, internally and from neighboring game studios, to form a new development unit within Sony. The idea was to expand upon some of the company’s most successful franchises and the team began working on a remake of the 2013 hit The Last of Us for the PlayStation 5. But Sony never fully acknowledged the team’s existence or gave them the funding and support needed to succeed in the highly competitive video game market, according to people involved. The studio never even got its own name. Instead, Sony moved ownership of the The Last of Us remake to its original creator, Naughty Dog, a Sony-owned studio behind many of the company’s best-selling games and an HBO television series in development.

Deflated, the small group’s leadership has largely disbanded, according to interviews with eight people familiar with the operation. Many, including Mumbauer, have left the company entirely. Mumbauer declined to comment and others asked not to be named discussing private information. A representative for Sony declined to comment or provide interviews.

The team’s failure highlights the complex hierarchy of video game development and in particular, Sony’s conservative approach to making games for the PlayStation 5. The Japanese conglomerate owns about a dozen studios across the world as part of its PlayStation Studios label, but in recent years it has prioritized games made by its most successful developers. Studios such as Santa Monica, California-based Naughty Dog and Amsterdam-based Guerrilla Games spend tens of millions of dollars to make games with the expectation that the investments will pay off exponentially. And they usually do. Hits including 2018’s God of War and 2020’s The Last of Us Part II are exclusive to PlayStation consoles, helping Sony sell some 114 million of the PS4. Rival Microsoft Corp. has taken the opposite approach, relying on a wide array of studios to feed its Netflix-like subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, which allows users to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to a variety of games.

Sony’s focus on exclusive blockbusters has come at the expense of niche teams and studios within the PlayStation organization, leading to high turnover and less choice for players. Last week, Sony reorganized a development office in Japan, resulting in mass departures of people who worked on less well-known but acclaimed games such as Gravity Rush and Everybody's Golf. The company has informed developers that it no longer wants to produce smaller games that are only successful in Japan, Bloomberg has reported.

This fixation on teams that churn out hits is creating unrest across Sony's portfolio of game studios. Oregon-based Sony Bend, best known for the 2019 open-world action game Days Gone, tried unsuccessfully to pitch a sequel that year, according to people familiar with the proposal. Although the first game had been profitable, its development had been lengthy and critical reception was mixed, so a Days Gone 2 wasn’t seen as a viable option.

Instead, one team at the studio was assigned to help Naughty Dog with a multiplayer game while a second group was assigned to work on a new Uncharted game with supervision from Naughty Dog. Some staff, including top leads, were unhappy with this arrangement and left. Bend's developers feared they might be absorbed into Naughty Dog, and the studio’s leadership asked to be taken off the Uncharted project. They got their wish last month and are now working on a new game of their own.[/QUOTE]

Console wars aside, this makes me said. Every game doesn't have to be AAA. I own both Gravity Rush games. I own the golf games.

 

[Kingshango]

We in the Jim Bo era.

Big games poppin, lil games stoppin.

 

[levitate]

Last week, Sony reorganized a development office in Japan, resulting in mass departures of people who worked on less well-known but acclaimed games such as Gravity Rush and Everybody's Golf.

Great game.

 

[HiiiPower]

Most important thing I took from this is that it confirms another Uncharted game

shame there won’t be a Days Gone sequel tho, that game was rough around the edges but layed a lot of groundwork for a great sequel

 

[winb83]

We in the Jim Bo era.

Big games poppin, lil games stoppin.

Jim is destroying everything. They're putting all their chips on these mega franchises and remaking old games instead of letting the talent cook. It's causing people to leave the company. They've clearly lost sight of what made them successful. Their next hit could come from a mid-tier game that their talent got to make.

Games like Dreams were sent to die. Days Gone did ok but wasn't good enough to continue. Pretty soon they'll be facing their own version of Microsoft's Forza, Halo, Gears. We can call it Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War, and Horizon.

 

[HiiiPower]

Jim is destroying everything. They're putting all their chips on these mega franchises and remaking old games instead of letting the talent cook. It's causing people to leave the company. They've clearly lost sight of what made them successful. Their next hit could come from a mid-tier game that their talent got to make.

Games like Dreams were sent to die. Days Gone did ok but wasn't good enough to continue. Pretty soon they'll be facing their own version of Microsoft's Forza, Halo, Gears. We can call it Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War, and Horizon.

You said that like those games are Forza Halo & Gears

 

[Chris Cool]

Who the fukk is asking for a last of us remake?

 

[Red Shield]

Jim is destroying everything. They're putting all their chips on these mega franchises and remaking old games instead of letting the talent cook. It's causing people to leave the company. They've clearly lost sight of what made them successful. Their next hit could come from a mid-tier game that their talent got to make.

Games like Dreams were sent to die. Days Gone did ok but wasn't good enough to continue. Pretty soon they'll be facing their own version of Microsoft's Forza, Halo, Gears. We can call it Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War, and Horizon.

Dreams coulda been big

 

[Red Shield]

We do not need a repeat of arrogant sony. Jim has gotta go


Who the fukk is asking for a LoU1 remake NO ONE

 

[winb83]

You said that like those games are Forza Halo & Gears

Keep the focus on just making those games and they will be. Franchise fatigue will set in just like it did for those Microsoft franchises. Sony needs to take more risk not less.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Every single gen Playstation has introduced new successful IPs. EVERY SINGLE GEN.

cats leave and goto other studios every day just like every other job.

don't we get "mad" every time they do a state of play showing other indie games that they are promoting?

Jason lookin for clickbait. NOPE.

I see Team Larry out here dapping this dumb shyt up and hoping for our downfall.

if they do a Last Of Us 1 Remake, that is dumb as fukk tho.

there's only 1 company out here who skipped an entire gen making some new exclusives that were worth a damn and kept recycling the same titles....

 

[winb83]

We do not need a repeat of arrogant sony. Jim has gotta go


Who the fukk is asking for a LoU1 remake NO ONE

The fact that leadership feel like they need to remake a game they already remastered and that isn't even 10 years old is baffling.

 

[Rekkapryde]

If they are indeed "remaking" LOU1 but packaging it with LOU2 and the rumored Factions game, ehhhhhhh.

But a standalone LOU1 remake is fukkin retarded right now.

 

[Red Shield]

The fact that leadership feel like they need to remake a game they already remastered and that isn't even 10 years old is baffling.

Only thing I can figure is they want the og up to the sequels lv for when the hbo series comes out.

Still think this is stupid as hell...

Sony's been making alotta dumb moves lately

 

[Legal]

Jim is destroying everything. They're putting all their chips on these mega franchises and remaking old games instead of letting the talent cook. It's causing people to leave the company. They've clearly lost sight of what made them successful. Their next hit could come from a mid-tier game that their talent got to make.

Games like Dreams were sent to die. Days Gone did ok but wasn't good enough to continue. Pretty soon they'll be facing their own version of Microsoft's Forza, Halo, Gears. We can call it Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War, and Horizon.

It really depends on how they manage this, but I see what you're saying. There's some risk they they're already taking.

Dreams didn't sell well, but that's partly due to it taking forever to come out. It was supposed to be out in 2016 originally, and ended up getting pushed out to the dead zone of early 2020. Additionally, the concept is probably a bit too different, as it's less a game, and more like the creation suite in LBP on all of the steroids. But the fact that Sony let them complete it in the first place stands as a win.

From what I see, they're trying to get the most out of the studios they currently own, since they can't really go on a buying spree. The thing is, Sony has proven that they're cool with letting their studios try out new stuff, assuming it seem like it might be worth everyone's time, and aren't afraid to have companies dip into the back catalog if needbe.

People forget that before it came out, people had serious questions about whether Ghost of Tsushima could be good, since Sucker Punch were just the Sly Cooper and Infamous studio.

They just let Bend go from making PSP games to developing Days Gone. That's a HUGE jump off a cliff. Problem was that the game seemed to have bitten off more then they could chew, seeing as they hadn't made a main console game since the PS2. I see them running support for Naughty Dog right now as trying to kill three birds with one stone. They get to keep them busy (so no one gets what they think is a bright idea to shut them down and save cash on a studio that isn't doing anything), the extra manpower might help them avoid more bad PR from crunch/overworked devs, and Bend can maybe pick up some knowledge from working alongside Sony's current A studio.

And even with studios that have established hits, they're cool with them doing other stuff. At this point, Naughty Dog is responsible for launching four franchises (Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, The Last of Us). At this point, if they feel like making something else, Sony is probably approving it damn near automatically.

Sony's problem right now is the same as it's always been. They stay quiet until they feel like they have something worth saying. People are panicking just because Microsoft is putting on a great show with announcing a bunch of things that may or might bear fruit. A good portion of those same people will hop on Twitter on some "WE WERE WRONG TO DOUBT SONY" shyt as soon as some fancy new cinematic trailer hits.