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[Shakka43]

Sucks to see it happen. I liked Concrete Genie quite a lot.

 

[Con-Z-epT]

Oh that's sad. I loved their games.

 

[Rac3r]

That’s weird. Over 3 years since their last game and suddenly shutting down. I’m worried about Media Molecule now.

 

[XXL]

I guess Jim has to go. I expect a poll thread soon.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Well, that sucks.

 

[Barlow]

 

[BadBurger]

Wish them luck on finding new ventures. I thought Concrete Genie was fun and imaginative.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

I guess Jim has to go. I expect a poll thread soon.

You can do better than this.

 

[Puscifer]

Makes sense. Good but not great content, from another era.

Yeah, but it still makes me sad. There's market indie games haven't fully captured of medium sized 7/8 games that were just fun to play from the PS2/Xbox days. And the ones that find grounding get bought up like Ninja Theory and recently Lince Works

 

[StealthGoblin]

Weren’t they working with Sony Pictures Animation on a game? Odd for Sony to close this down.

 

[[Sigma]]

Well we now know that rumored game is cancelled. Thanks Jim and Hermen.

 

[Topher]

Damn.....that sucks. These smaller studios always felt like the soul of PlayStation to me. Jim Ryan leaving his mark.

 

[Punished Miku]

Well we now know that rumored game is cancelled. Thanks Jim and Hermen.

Who knows if he was talking about this. Doesn't really matter.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ps5-exec-doesnt-want-to-see-gamings-future-dominated-by-live-service-games-boring.1656032/

 

[graywolf323]

It's a small studio. It's only been 2 years since last game? Things take a while to make.

It's a shame, they made cool and creative small games. It makes sense to have these alongside big cinematic titles and GaaS.

4 years since their last game, 2 years since any news about whatever they were working on since

 

[X-Wing]

Well, they made two games and only one of them was good. I'm not surprised. I do hope that Sony does retain the developers and place them in some other studio.

 

[Ansphn]

Well. PixelOpus were also expanding and working on a new game...
...until they weren't

link?

 

[envyzeal]

It sounds like it wasn't that planned, considering they hired a senior game designer in January.

 

[Anime-Vix]

It's odd Sony would shut them down. They could have at least stayed open as a support studio. Support studios are very much needed these days for modern AAA games.

 

[Ronin_7]

How the fuck this studio never grew past 12 people since 2014?

Sony clearly made a revaluation of their studios, Media Molecule was shaked & this studio closed.

You either perform or you're fucked in the gaming industry, it's just a sad industry lol

 

[Elios83]

Jim is ruthless. You can't expect to survive the axe if your contribution are just small indie-like games that take 5+ years to be developed and find no commercial success.
The money will go to expand an other big team or to finance the next exclusivity deal or the next acquisition.
That's simply the reality of things.
Media Molecule has probably been given the last chance as well if I had to guess.

 

[cireza]

You can do better than this.

Opinion : This is the end of Sony as we know it

 

[L*][*N*K]

Closing such a small studio that doesn't cost much seems very weird. Especially when your competitor has no plans to stop growing.

Go big or go home, that is what Jim says on Monday mornings

 

[spons]

I suppose it's only natural to get shafted under Jim and Hermen if you don't manage to churn out a 200+ million AAA game every couple of years.

 

[Snake29]

Closing such a small studio that doesn't cost much seems very weird. Especially when your competitor has no plans to stop growing.

Pixel Opus was a small studio what was basically a few students when they started. I think it was created out of the PS University.

 

[skit_data]

That’s a shame but tbh I haven’t even played Concrete Genie. That said I really think they should start looking into getting more colorful and light hearted games out (Team Asobi did a fantastic job with Astrobot) because they are few and far between.

 

[Perrott]

It doesn't make sense for console manufacturers to own indie-level teams no more. In today's day and age, when there already are publishers of indie games - Devolver, Annapurna, RawFury, Team17 - providing all platforms with smaller, creative and experimental titles, the studio organizations from the console manufacturers should be solely focused on producing the kind of cutting-edge blockbusters that can only be made through the resources, support and infrastructure provided by either Sony or Microsoft.

Pentiment was cool, but Josh Sawyer could have made that game anywhere else with the same end result. On the other hand, an ambitious project like Avowed can only be given the chance to become the best version of itself under the umbrella of a first-party studio organization.

 

[TLZ]

very weird?
"As of 2019, PixelOpus is comprised of between 12 to 19 employees"
So that's 19 people getting paid for doing nothing. Or maybe the main talent left. we don't know.

Concrete genie was not THAT good

Do we know everyone actually left? Maybe Sony put them in other studios to make use of them.

 

[Abriael_GN]

And this right here is the value of Game Pass. With game pass, experimental and charming little games like Concrete Genie and Entwined have value for the brand, while they may not generate enough raw sales to be viable otherwise.

This is particularly painful as it feels like it comes exactly from the same playbook as the shutting down of Japan Studios. Don't make big blockbusters? You don't have a place at PlayStation.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

That sucks but I never played their stuff at all.

Guess their project wasn't working out too well and they decided to cut their losses. Hate to see it but sometimes tough choices need to be made.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

And this right here is the value of Game Pass. With game pass, experimental and charming little games like Concrete Genie and Entwined have value for the brand, while they may not generate enough raw sales to be viable otherwise.

I don't know what GamePass has to do with it when Sony has their own Sub service they can throw it on.

GamePass isn't some panacea to costly failures

 

[CamHostage]

Damn it, I was really looking forward to that Sony Animation project if the rumor was true; I don't necessarily need a second Spider-Man game, but the Concrete Genie people working with Into the Spiderverse visual design seemed compelling. And this was the kind of interesting studio I liked seeing stuff out of even though it's the big games we crave most of all right now.

(The rumor was mostly Spiderverse, but i think an animated Ghostbusters companion was also maybe a possibility, which, meh but could have been ok if they pushed it; not sure why Sony PlayStation and Sony Pictures were suddenly rumored to be buddy-buddy after all this time but Bend Studio was supposedly on a Men in Black project which i was mixed on but they could done something with that brand if it were true. )

 

[kruis]

Pruning is a real thing. Resources, big or small, can be better spent on productive teams. They were likely years away from releasing a game that had no chance at moving the needle for PlayStation.

There was a time when Sony was interested in these smaller arty games. Guess these smaller games don't fit in a grand vision with numerous GAAS multiplayer games.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

There was a time when Sony was interested in these smaller arty games. Guess these smaller games don't fit in a grand vision with numerous GAAS multiplayer games.

They still are.

Kena and Stray ring a bell?

 

[Reallink]

Closing such a small studio that doesn't cost much seems very weird. Especially when your competitor has no plans to stop growing.

20 people in San Francisco (Mateo) ain't cheap at all my guy. Ain't nobody going to continue paying salaries, taxes, and overhead that likely combine to like 300K-500K per person for a studio struggling to sporadically release art house games. Maybe if they were in Eastern EU or Russia or something, but definitely not San Fran-Fucking-Sisco.

 

[kruis]

Who knows if he was talking about this. Doesn't really matter.

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/ps5-exec-doesnt-want-to-see-gamings-future-dominated-by-live-service-games-boring.1656032/

Shuehei Yoshida's days at Sony are numbered...

 

[Godot25]

Deal Gone

What?

 

[StueyDuck]

its a smaller team so i imagine they'll be getting gobbled up by other internal studios, but that's a shame, while concrete genie wasn't the most incredible game ever, it had it's moments.

so much for them working with Sony Pictures on making some huge IP like the rumors stated

 

[Hestar69]

Concrete Genie was good that sucks..

Xbox should make a new studio with the whole team

 

[Abriael_GN]

I don't know what GamePass has to do with it when Sony has their own Sub service they can throw it on.

GamePass isn't some panacea to costly failures

We don't have any indication that Concrete Genie is a "costly failure." Considering the small size of the team, it likely simply hasn't done blockbuster numbers. It certainly wasn't a "costly" game to make.

With Game Pass, games of that scope that won't sell gangbusters get an audience and solidify the value of the offer. PlayStation Plus is a very different proposition and doesn't have the same effect in supporting smaller games.

 

[JaksGhost]

Shuehei Yoshida's days at Sony are numbered...

Yoshida is most likely the one that helped fuel this closure with his successful indie pulls for Sony.

 

[El Pistolero]

Jim is ruthless. You can't expect to survive the axe if your contribution are just small indie-like games that take 5+ years to be developed and find no commercial success.
The money will go to expand an other big team or to finance the next exclusivity deal or the next acquisition.
That's simply the reality of things.
Media Molecule has probably been given the last chance as well if I had to guess.

Sounds like it. I hope the developers land on their feet, but the reality is that there are so many talented indie developers out there, which Playstation can support and promote for much less money. The successes of Sifu, Stray and Tchia attest to that...

 

[Yoboman]

That's a shame but one game every 5 years from effectively an indie wasn't doing much

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

We don't have any indication that Concrete Genie is a "costly failure." Considering the small size of the team, it likely simply hasn't done blockbuster numbers. It certainly wasn't a "costly" game to make.

With Game Pass, games of that scope that won't sell gangbusters get an audience and solidify the value of the offer. PlayStation Plus is a very different proposition and doesn't have the same effect in supporting smaller games.

We do have an indication that it was better in Sony's mind to shut the studio down than to keep pouring money into them. While not a "big loss", these little things add up, and capital in their eyes was better deployed elsewhere. It's not like many people even know about or played their games.

Playstation Plus is exactly the same and Sony has a similar strategy with respect to indies. Many indies go on PS Plus day 1. Sony just disagrees with sending their tentpole AAA games there on day 1. So there's really no distinction whatsoever here between GP and PS plus for titles of this scale. Even with a Sub service, some studios just aren't going to be worth it to collectively push the needle.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Step 1: Cut 20 Pixel Opus employees.

Step 2: Hire 20 people for PlayStations Live Service Center of Excellence.

Step 3: Profit and grow beyond your wildest dreams.

 

[Unknown?]

Closing such a small studio that doesn't cost much seems very weird. Especially when your competitor has no plans to stop growing.

Have you been to California? It costs a lot and that could go elsewhere. It's doubtful they even had a working title in development.

 

[AJUMP23]

Who?

Same here. No idea who they are.

 

[freefornow]

Nows your chance Phil. I suspect that you may have a spare $69B floating around in your pocket soon.

 

[SkyHighTrees]

the bastard ugly oldeheaid

 

[Punished Miku]

Nows your chance Phil. I suspect that you may have a spare $69B floating around in your pocket soon.

gOoD eNufF 4 gaME aSS AA and indie sux

 

[Edmund]

PHIL SPENCER CAN YOU PLEASE ACQUIRE AND SAVE ALL OF THEM PLZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!