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[jm89]

Lol right.

If people wanted Japan Studio games they would have bought them. I dont think any of their game even sold half a million copies last gen

What I find odd is what possessed them to work on a knack 2. Japan studio where probably already on thin ice, why work on a sequel to something that was meh to begin with.

I have no idea what went on behind scenes, and maybe sony got them to do it. But I would have thought there would be an attempt at redemption for the studio, or maybe knack 2 was there attempt at redemption

 

[Oddvintagechap]

What I find odd is what possessed them to work on a knack 2. Japan studio where probably already on thin ice, why work on a sequel to something that was meh to begin with.

I have no idea what went on behind scenes, and maybe sony got them to do it. But I would have thought there would be an attempt at redemption for the studio, or maybe knack 2 was there attempt at redemption

You laugh about Knack, but it was probably more profitable than Bloodborne.

 

[remember_spinal]

What I find odd is what possessed them to work on a knack 2. Japan studio where probably already on thin ice, why work on a sequel to something that was meh to begin with.

I have no idea what went on behind scenes, and maybe sony got them to do it. But I would have thought there would be an attempt at redemption for the studio, or maybe knack 2 was there attempt at redemption

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Leaving VR for more GaaS trash is massively disappointing

They could have been developing the next HL: Alyx caliber game instead and now they’re going to release some title that’ll be quickly forgotten in 2 months like that stupid car game Sony pushed out for PS5 launch

 

[remember_spinal]

Leaving VR for more GaaS trash is massively disappointing

They could have been developing the next HL: Alyx caliber game instead and now they’re going to release some title that’ll be quickly forgotten in 2 months like that stupid car game Sony pushed out for PS5 launch

They probably don’t want their entire studios reputation and history locked behind expensive peripherals that may or may not be supported next generation again.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

They probably don’t want their entire studios reputation and history locked behind expensive peripherals that may or may not be supported next generation again.

So instead of being one of the top dogs on an interesting platform that is just now becoming mature enough to break out, they would instead rather chase the Fortnite crowd and fail miserably like so many others?

 

[Heisenberg007]

So instead of being one of the top dogs on an interesting platform that is just now becoming mature enough to break out, they would instead rather chase the Fortnite crowd and fail miserably like so many others?

Personally, I'd want London Studios to make a sequel of Blood & Truth for PS5, with a fully playable version on PS VR 2 (like Resident Evil Village), because that game was freakin' awesome.

Having said that, I understand why London Studios is chasing that one big hit that would put them on the radar and make them an important studio for PlayStation.

The competition at PlayStation Studios is quite fierce. Imagine competing for budget and attention within SIE when you have to compete against Insomniac, Guerrilla, Santa Monica, Sucker Punch, Polyphony, and Naughty Dog. How long till SIE decides it'd be good to shut down London Studios and use that 100-dev budget to add another team to Insomniac or Naughty Dog to make a new game.

They want to feel important and indispensable. And bringing in revenue (if the GaaS MP game is a big hit) is the best way to do that.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Personally, I'd want London Studios to make a sequel of Blood & Truth for PS5, with a fully playable version on PS VR 2 (like Resident Evil Village), because that game was freakin' awesome.

Having said that, I understand why London Studios is chasing that one big hit that would put them on the radar and make them an important studio for PlayStation.

The competition at PlayStation Studios is quite fierce. Imagine competing for budget and attention within SIE when you have to compete against Insomniac, Guerrilla, Santa Monica, Sucker Punch, Polyphony, and Naughty Dog. How long till SIE decides it'd be good to shut down London Studios and use that 100-dev budget to add another team to Insomniac or Naughty Dog to make a new game.

They want to feel important and indispensable. And bringing in revenue (if the GaaS MP game is a big hit) is the best way to do that.

My point is that their chance to differentiate themselves and succeed is probably higher if they used their VR talent and stay in that space rather than chasing something that’s highly likely to fail (GaaS)

 

[remember_spinal]

My point is that their chance to differentiate themselves and succeed is probably higher if they used their VR talent and stay in that space rather than chasing something that’s highly likely to fail (GaaS)

I have a feeling being a great VR studio doesn’t leave them with a bright future if VR doesn’t take off this generation, its the same amount of risk. They can still go back and make VR games whether their service game takes off or not.


A game on the level of splatoon would make them very valuable to SIE. A lot of people still wouldn’t know who Team Asobi was if it weren’t for Astro’s Playroom.

 

[Heisenberg007]

My point is that their chance to differentiate themselves and succeed is probably higher if they used their VR talent and stay in that space rather than chasing something that’s highly likely to fail (GaaS)

I agree, they will have more of a "unique presence" if they stick to VR, but the revenue and ROI stuff will still be a problem for them.

I think that's why there is no out-and-out VR exclusive studio in PlayStation. Even FireSprite has 3-4 projects, and only of them is a VR game (Horizon CoTM that they are co-developing with Guerrilla).

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

A game on the level of splatoon would make them very valuable to SIE.

Very unlikely they do that

More likely they’ll make the next Destruction Allstars

At least with VR if they could help push the platform more

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I agree, they will have more of a "unique presence" if they stick to VR, but the revenue and ROI stuff will still be a problem for them.

I think that's why there is no out-and-out VR exclusive studio in PlayStation. Even FireSprite has 3-4 projects, and only of them is a VR game (Horizon CoTM that they are co-developing with Guerrilla).

Sonys strategy sucks, 50% of their games are now focused on GaaS nonsense which didn’t make them successful in the PS4 era, taking valuable resources away from AAA and VR games

 

[remember_spinal]

Very unlikely they do that

More likely they’ll make the next Destruction Allstars

At least with VR if they could help push the platform more

If you have confidence in them to make a great VR game why wouldn’t you have confidence they could make something outside of VR?

Sonys strategy sucks, 50% of their games are now focused on GaaS nonsense which didn’t make them successful in the PS4 era, taking valuable resources away from AAA and VR games

It doesn’t suck. We see whats happening to Ubisoft. They are burning out making single player games and forcing a bunch of extra monetatizion and other schemes into their games because they don’t have any successful service titles to carry them.

You can’t survive as a AAA developer without GAAS

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

If you have confidence in them to make a great VR game why wouldn’t you have confidence they could make something outside of VR?

Because they have history making great VR games

 

[remember_spinal]

Because they have history making great VR games

Studios can try different things, GG only made FPS games, now they make 3rd person action adventure games. I expect Team Asobi to try new stuff this generation also

I expect a lot of sonys studios to try new stuff this generation

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

It doesn’t suck. We see whats happening to Ubisoft. They are burning out making single player games and forcing a bunch of extra monetatizion and other schemes into their games because they don’t have any successful service titles to carry them.

You can’t survive as a AAA developer without GAAS

BS

Ubisoft sucks at making AAA games, that’s their problem

Sonys first party AAA studios sell extremely well

 

[remember_spinal]

BS

Ubisoft sucks at making AAA games, that’s their problem

Sonys first party AAA studios sell extremely well

Not all of them, a handful of them sell extremely well, thats why all the discussion about sony is centered around the same 5 studios. Guerrilla, Insomniac, Suckerpunch, Santa Monica, Naughty Dog…

Most people don’t even know London Studios exists. That goes for a lot of their smaller studios, they are all doing things that add value to SIE, a service game even if its middling is far more valuable than a VR game.

 

[drezz]

I hope they already finished a patch for Blod and truth, just waiting for a release come PSVR2 launch day.

And if there is a option to run their new game with VR, I'd be fine with it.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Most people don’t even know London Studios exists. That goes for a lot of their smaller studios, they are all doing things that add value to SIE, a service game even if its middling is far more valuable than a VR game.

Sony already has like 15 Service games in the works

How many VR games do they have in the works if smaller studios with VR experience are abandoning it?

It’s shamefully shortsighted strategy

 

[remember_spinal]

Sony already has like 15 Service games in the works

How many VR games do they have in the works if smaller studios with VR experience are abandoning it?

It’s shamefully shortsighted strategy

And one of those 12 live service games is probably the London Studios game.

If they put their studios on VR people will complain they are abandoning their flat TV games, just like they did with their handhelds. I’d rather see talented studios diversify their output and not just tie themselves to additional hardware

I’d be disappointed if we don’t see a flat TV game from Team Asobi this generation also

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I’d rather see talented studios diversify their output and not just tie themselves to additional hardware

Why even make a PSVR2 if only one studio is making games for it????

 

[remember_spinal]

Why even make a PSVR2 if only one studio is making games for it????

Polyphony is making GT7, and Firesprite/Guerrilla is making Horizon, we don’t know how many VR projects are in the works. Makes no sense to act like sony isn’t committing resources to it when they haven’t announced what most of their studios are working on, a lot of them have multiple projects.

All we know is this one studio wants to try something different. I doubt Sony is forcing them into it

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Polyphony is making GT7, and Firesprite/Guerrilla is making Horizon, we don’t know how many VR projects are in the works. Makes no sense to act like sony isn’t committing resources to it when they haven’t announced what most of their studios are working on, a lot of them have multiple projects.

GT7 isn’t a ground up exclusive, it just happens to be one that works well on both flat and VR

Only having one studio make exclusive games is extraordinarily stupid

If not London Studio, then who?

 

[remember_spinal]

GT7 isn’t a ground up exclusive, it just happens to be one that works well on both flat and VR

Only having one studio make exclusive games is extraordinarily stupid

Again, you dont know which studios are working on service titles, single player games, or vr titles. It makes no sense to say otherwise. No one knows what those 25+ games in production are.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Again, you dont know which studios are working on service titles, single player games, or vr titles. It makes no sense to say otherwise. No one knows what those 25+ games in production are.

We know that a crapton are working on service games or traditional games

It should be concerning that one of their premier VR studios is now abandoning it

I don’t have much faith in their other studios focusing on it

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The only reason Bend is making a 10x game is because Blood and Truth bombed. VR is a studio killer.

 

[remember_spinal]

We know that a crapton are working on service games or traditional games

It should be concerning that one of their premier VR studios is now abandoning it

I don’t have much faith in their other studios focusing on it

Insomniac put out more VR games than London Studios, they want to try something else, whats the problem? we know that Sony has a lot of outside studios working on their service titles also.

It seems like they are letting their studios do what they want and for service titles and vr they are outsourcing them to 3rd parties, unless the internal studios want to do them

 

[remember_spinal]

The only reason Bend is making a 10x game is because Blood and Truth bombed. VR is a studio killer.

I bet if you created a poll on here there’d be less than 20 people who have played B&T. And if you went around a gaming convention and asked people if they knew what blood and truth or what games london studios make, most of them would have no idea what you were talking about.

VR as excited for it as I am is still way too much of a niche market to tie entire studios down to. Thats why sony isn’t buying more VR studios, theres no real way to get a decent ROI from it right now. Even for Valve, Alyx seems like more of a vanity project for the studio than somethign to actually make money with.

 

[Crayon]

I'd rather have them working on vr but let's see what they can do with their new thing here.

 

[yurinka]

Singstar, EyeToy, Wonderbook and PS Home.

I will never understand how these guys escaped the axe from Jim Ryan but Japan Studios couldn't.

Singstar, EyeToy, Buzz or PS Home were big sales successes and Sony was happy with PSVR.

After many decades Japan Studios never had a single sales hit and had some money pits, so they restructuring it changing its management and splitting it into two studios, to branch out their 2nd party team into a separate XDEV office as they did before in Europe or USA.

I think a lot of sonys multiplayer games will find success in that realm, with maybe a couple being more explosive like Bungies new game or Factions.

Sony already had several successful GaaS like GT7, MLB, Dreams or Little Big Planet. And well, I think the new IPs from Bungie plus the games from Firewalk, Deviation and Haven, plus TLOU Online will be highly successful too.

I bet if you created a poll on here there’d be less than 20 people who have played B&T. And if you went around a gaming convention and asked people if they knew what blood and truth or what games london studios make, most of them would have no idea what you were talking about.

Some games aren't tarteged to the type of player that comes to this forum or goes to gaming conventions, and are wildly successful.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Insomniac put out more VR games than London Studios, they want to try something else, whats the problem? we know that Sony has a lot of outside studios working on their service titles also.

It seems like they are letting their studios do what they want and for service titles and vr they are outsourcing them to 3rd parties, unless the internal studios want to do them

It’s not a problem if Sony has decent VR support without them

I have my doubts

Their new game concept art also looks terrible

 

[Team Andromeda]

SONY's In-House commitment to VR was crap and looks to be just the same for the VR2.

 

[BootsLoader]

I was interested until I saw the concept art looks like Saints Row zoomers vs. dragons.

My thoughts exactly. The tone and the mood of that concept art reminds me of a Sayonara game for iOS which I hate because it’s like a rainbow sausage party with unicorn shit around.

 

[JimboJones]

I thought they were a joke. Didn't realize it sold that much in Europe.

Eyetoy was like the Wii before the Wii, it's was huge and got lots of people who didn't normally game into games.
But yeah getting out of vr is probably a good idea.

 

[sncvsrtoip]

I would defenitly prefer new blood and truth for psvr2 than another online coop with terrible art style that will die in one month after premiere.

 

[Crayon]

What exactly does "leaving vr" mean to you?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

SONY's In-House commitment to VR was crap and looks to be just the same for the VR2.

Unfortunately I think the only way it will get better is if they figure out ways to make their big AAA games playable in VR

I think some of them are doable, like The Last of Us. Maybe Ghost of Tsushima or Spiderman. But the problem is you will need to tweak the gameplay systems to work with all the progression and so forth and it may be a lot of work. And we all know VR is better if it's built more from the ground up to take advantage of the added interactivity.

One thing that is encouraging though is that with as powerful as PS5 is and how prevalent 60 fps modes are. I don't think that will be a huge limitation any longer. Should be quite a bit easier to use foveated rendering and downscale a tad to hit performance targets.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I would defenitly prefer new blood and truth for psvr2 than another online coop with terrible art style that will die in one month after premiere.

Yup. Studio London dies chasing some Zoomer crowd when no1Curr

At least with VR they can be top dog. Problem with Blood and Truth was PSVR limitations and the title of the game. The quality was certainly there. Like I said they could be developing the next big thing in a new landscape of VR but they chose some generic co-op game in London with fornight monsters. ZZZZZzzzzZZzzzzZZzzzz

 

[Crayon]

Unfortunately I think the only way it will get better is if they figure out ways to make their big AAA games playable in VR

I think some of them are doable, like The Last of Us. Maybe Ghost of Tsushima or Spiderman. But the problem is you will need to tweak the gameplay systems to work with all the progression and so forth and it may be a lot of work. And we all know VR is better if it's built more from the ground up to take advantage of the added interactivity.

One thing that is encouraging though is that with as powerful as PS5 is and how prevalent 60 fps modes are. I don't think that will be a huge limitation any longer. Should be quite a bit easier to use foveated rendering and downscale a tad to hit performance targets.

Not necessarily. You can just use a headset as a camera and play a game totally normal with a controller and it can be awesome. Though there is a better chance they will choose to work in vr controls and have to rebalance parts of the game like you say.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Not necessarily. You can just use a headset as a camera and play a game totally normal with a controller and it can be awesome. Though there is a better chance they will choose to work in vr controls and have to rebalance parts of the game like you say.

One thing interesting to me is Horizon: CoTM is running at 60 fps with reprojection

Does this mean that any current PS5 game running at 60 fps could easily get translated to VR in terms of performance with no drawbacks vs Flat Mode in terms of clarity?

 

[Crayon]

One thing interesting to me is Horizon: CoTM is running at 60 fps with reprojection

Does this mean that any current PS5 game running at 60 fps could easily get translated to VR in terms of performance with no drawbacks vs Flat Mode in terms of clarity?

Seams so. I'm not sure how much you have to get into the engine but it seems once it has the hooks, a standard game could be moved right over with a little nip and tuck. Might need to claw some more performance out but shouldn't be that much looking at GT7

Astrobot shows how good a result you can get when the headset is used for nothing more than putting you in your game. I'm actually hoping they go that route and support more games, faster.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Seams so. I'm not sure how much you have to get into the engine but it seems once it has the hooks, a standard game could be moved right over with a little nip and tuck. Might need to claw some more performance out but shouldn't be that much looking at GT7

Astrobot shows how good a result you can get when the headset is used for nothing more than putting you in your game. I'm actually hoping they go that route and support more games, faster.

I think the biggest hurdle to just watching it in VR from a third person perspective is the nausea factor. I just don't think it works in most games.

AstroBot is very careful about and restrictive about camera movement.

That's why I think most experiences would need to be tailiored into first person view.

 

[Crayon]

I think the biggest hurdle to just watching it in VR from a third person perspective is the nausea factor. I just don't think it works in most games.

AstroBot is very careful about and restrictive about camera movement.

That's why I think most experiences would need to be tailiored into first person view.

All I've ever heard about playing in third person is that it's easier on the stomach. Note astrobot is one of the most comfortable games. Not the best example because the game actually has no panning besides your head. PC mods are really the place to look that up.

 

[Paperboy]

Did Blood & Truth sell that bad?
The talents at London Studios seem wasted on a flat, more traditional type of game. Their niche has been to innovate and to provide a bridge between the virtual and the real world. Many people probably expected a sequel to Blood & Truth now with Sony's new VR headset soon to be released - please say that this is what they've been working on for the last 2+ years but Sony is just teasing us.

 

[K2D]

Should keep them on VR to make some good titles. This new project sounds lame as hell.

I'm glad you're not my (or hopefully anyone's) boss. Creatives need variation.

 

[R6Rider]

I'm glad you're not my (or hopefully anyone's) boss. Creatives need variation.

Wouldn't last long as my employee. Over two months late on projects.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Did Blood & Truth sell that bad?

Yes. Developing for VR is akin to cracking a cyanide pill before the Allies reached Hitlers bunker at the end of WW2.