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[Nikana]

He was ok. No Jack Trenton or Kevin Butler though.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Two big-name SIE dudes stepping down at the same time. This looks like either a shakeup or a sign of smoke.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia President Atsushi Morita Steps Down - Siliconera

Following the departure of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios boss Shawn Layden, another big name stepped down in Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia President Atsushi Morita.

www.siliconera.com

 

[Pejo]

Two big-name SIE dudes stepping down at the same time. This looks like either a shakeup or a sign of smoke.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia President Atsushi Morita Steps Down - Siliconera

Following the departure of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios boss Shawn Layden, another big name stepped down in Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia President Atsushi Morita.

www.siliconera.com

I certainly hope you're right. I have been pretty disappointed with Playstation this gen. They had a lot of excitement in the leadup to PS4, but I didn't approve of Layden's focus of "fewer, bigger titles". The breadth of games is why I was a fan of Sony to begin with.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I certainly hope you're right. I have been pretty disappointed with Playstation this gen. They had a lot of excitement in the leadup to PS4, but I didn't approve of Layden's focus of "fewer, bigger titles". The breadth of games is why I was a fan of Sony to begin with.

I mentioned this earlier but I was really bummed when he dropped the indie focus. Sony had excellent momentum during the first half of this gen and now they're just "King Sony" again, not really putting much effort into pressing their advantage.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Anything but a PC Gaymer

Shut your hole.

 

[demigod]

put Shu on top. I didn't like Layden, he didn't do anything, first party production went down. not a fan of much of his work at all. he was all for being quiet and cryptic wasn't a fan of that.

hopefully they have Japan at HQ again but unlikely. they will probably make Jim Ryan the head, I hope its Shu tho.

Layden just ruined playstation events big time.

Says the guy that doesn't even own a PS4. Spoken like a true xbox fanboy, you really don't know anything about Sony.

You playing games or you playing events? Oh right the only thing MS has going for them is E3. That's their best output this gen.

 

[mejin]

Wonder if this time Shu will take the helm.

 

[CyberPanda]

 

[CyberPanda]

 

[Dabaus]

They gonna put some woke person in charge who, after sony already went into censoring games even after ratings boards gave their ratings, is gonna establish even tastier soy based rules on playstation games going forward.

Joke aside, I hope they put someone from sony japans side in the leadership role with a greater focus on more japanese games, even though japan already has stepped up well this generation, and not a person from woke sony california.

That literally was Shawn Layden. His management of WWS was always strange to me, like when MS started buying all these studios he said 13 was enough and he wasnt looking to expand. I wonder if he was the guy behind skipping all press conferences for the past 2 years as well? State of Play didnt actually start until Jim Ryan took over correct? If thats the case then Layden wanted Playstation to be this hermit hiding out, not expanding while the competition does. If thats the case good riddance.

 

[Javthusiast]

That literally was Shawn Layden. His management of WWS was always strange to me, like when MS started buying all these studios he said 13 was enough and he wasnt looking to expand. I wonder if he was the guy behind skipping all press conferences for the past 2 years as well? State of Play didnt actually start until Jim Ryan took over correct? If thats the case then Layden wanted Playstation to be this hermit hiding out, not expanding while the competition does. If thats the case good riddance.

Not saying he couldn't be responsible for some of the woke stuff, just fear it might get even worse with his replacement.

 

[jakinov]

Well, I would disagree that Sony's first-party is the best that it's ever been. Sony's first-party were never their strength but at least they tried in the last generations. Sony are more than ever dependent on third-party deals and exclusives to help fill the void, IMHO. It also concerns me that the variety of first-party titles is lacking overall. Many of the high-profile first-party titles are third-person action/movie games. Yes, they sell and yes, people like those games. And that's OK and those games should exist! But I'd like Sony to invest in Japan Studio more, for example. Japan Studio brought some really cool stuff to Playstation in the past. But again, I can concede if someone disagrees, saying "well, that's because your taste is just different". That might very well be the case. But I still stand by my opinion that Sony are more reliant on third-parties than ever.

Thing with Japan is, the working conditions (including pay) in the US aren't actually that much better, there are more then enough reports that say as much, even by third-rate bloggers like Jason Schreier who shills books about that. In terms of hardware decisions, you can look at it from multiple perspectives. Cerny did a very good job in choosing a conservative layout and choosing components that are (somewhat) reliable, cheap and known to developers. PS4 is a well thought-through system but it's safe, which is understandable after what happened with PS3 (I would argue that the build quality of the PS4 hardware is horrible, though). From a platform, services and software perspective, I would also argue that the US aren't a shining beacon of light in that regard either. I think all the services are lacking quality and reasonable pricing (they are all overpriced). And let's face it, services are there because every company wants to bind you to their eco system and the longer you stay in one, the more attached you are. And there are more than enough reports about failures and problems with software from big companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple etc. as well. So I would rather say that software in general is notorious for being shit (especially after a major version bump), it's just how development is done nowadays (ship features first, patch later). And again, saying that the Japanese game dev scene is weak, is a matter of personal preference because I would say the same about the US game dev scene (at the moment). Point being that it's not as black and white (as with everything).

So, while I agree with you that moving back to Japan is no guarantee that Playstation will somehow benefit, I would disagree with Sony being in a good position with regards to the long-term. I'd love for Sony to be less reliant on third-party and I'd love third-parties to already embrace multi-platform development completely (which many do already, fortunately). For example, I expect FF7 Remake to come to other platforms as well down the line because Final Fantasy is too big for one platform and Square Enix know that. So why don't Sony work on their own "AAA"-RPG IP? Wouldn't that be cool? Or why not take Astro-Bot and try to make it their premier platforming IP? So you don't have to rely on Activision with Crash and Spyro.
But hey, I'm currently playing armchair mananger here and maybe Sony management are happy and have stuff planned that I don't know about, so who knows? So everything I've just mumbled is just my (probably badly informed) opinion.

Whether or not you like the games is just different strokes for different folks. InFamous, Killzone, Resistance, and Rachet never sold that great. Most of the non franchise did even worse. Uncharted, Spiderman, Horizon and God of War are doing incredible this generation. Sony is probably always going to be dependent on third party. Just like Apple and Microsoft and Google are for their platforms. It'd be nice to not be. But it's really hard to expect a company to outshine a shit ton of other companies trying to do the same thing combined. Again, they don't need to move their focus main operations back to Japan; for Japan Studio and others to keep doing their thing. Moving them back won't necessarily mean a focus on letting them be more creative either they could just as easily make them do mobile games, arcade or slot machines because the business execs there see that that's really popular in Japan.


Working conditions and pay are significantly better in the US. The management is going to be compensated really well to be competitive and so are software developers/engineers. Also, to clarify I wasn't talking game developers as they are different story but even game developers in the US are still paid better, work less and have work perks (especially in California). I was talking about system software and services. You can have game studios anywhere around the world remote/disconnected from your headquarters. I'm no computer engineer so I can't comment on the underlying build quality or the PS4 vs the PS3. Anecdotal reliability experiences is very YMMV and may not be representative of anything meaningful. Almost every core component on the PS3 had complaints from developers: Blu-ray, RAM, CPU and GPU; and ultimately ended up for a worst experience for developers and/or gamers. The US is definitely a shining beacon of light when it comes to platform and services. They build things that are used widely all around the world. Of course Google, Apple and Microsoft aren't perfect. But America pulls in the best software engineers in the world and has an environment that rewards and stimulates innovation. Not just software engineers too; they have some of the best IT people in the industry and are the ones setting the trends for patterns of service reliability/availability and fast delivery. That doesn't mean it's impossible for other countries (including Japan) to have smart people and have successful products but your odds are arguably better to build a business unit in an area where you can find and that facilitates expertise and innovation. Again, whatever game you like is subjective and I'm not saying anything about getting rid of Japanese game studios for American ones.

I'm sure they are already trying to grow out their first party efforts. Again I don't think they will get to a point where they don't have to rely on third party. They could do a lot of things but doing more things adds more risk. Forcing one of their existing devs to make an RPG is kind of random and they probably aren't going to form a new studio to fill in an arbitrary genre gap unless they see some kind of potential in a trend like say when online-play in general or MOBAs were getting popular or battle royale today.

Sorry but I must correct you little "insult" here:
OC 2019 Hall of Fame
- 8 from top 10 is made by Japanese dev
MC 2019 Top Score
- 5 from top 10 is made by Japanese dev

Not to mention this is taken from western "gaming" journalist critics who hate everything "anime" these days.

You misunderstood what I was talking about. I'm not saying Japan games are bad or that they can't make a good game. It's that Japan not a great place for a software developer which makes it a bad place to build out your platform (operating system, tools, SDK and OS developer APIs) and your services (PSN). They pay their developers worse or close to janitors and look down on them. They have a reputation of being bad with user experience (user interfaces and user friendliness).

That literally was Shawn Layden. His management of WWS was always strange to me, like when MS started buying all these studios he said 13 was enough and he wasnt looking to expand. I wonder if he was the guy behind skipping all press conferences for the past 2 years as well? State of Play didn't actually start until Jim Ryan took over correct? If thats the case then Layden wanted Playstation to be this hermit hiding out, not expanding while the competition does. If thats the case good riddance.

Microsoft bought a bunch of studios after closing multiple last-gen and even letting a couple buy themselves out. Lets look at what Microsoft did. They bought out two small indie developers who have games with really poor reviews and probably really bad sales. They bought a studio that was already making them exclusives games, an indie studio who has lukewarm games mostly, two random RPG studios with hit or miss and niche games. The Initiative is being headed by a guy with a studio that has only had some somewhat recent success by copying Uncharted in the decade that he worked there. Ninja Theory is okay but they are like a worst Insomniac as they can get fairly good reviews but mediocre (not bad) sales/reach.

 

[demigod]

10 bucks Jez Corden is a clueless idiot.

 

[joe_zazen]

.

I certainly hope you're right. I have been pretty disappointed with Playstation this gen. They had a lot of excitement in the leadup to PS4, but I didn't approve of Layden's focus of "fewer, bigger titles". The breadth of games is why I was a fan of Sony to begin with.

Yeah, this gen has been shit for my tastes. I dont like baseball, they killed drivedclub dev, dont like GT style simcade always online racing, not a fan of Sony style single player super serious 3rd person action games to the point of not even buying them anymore...

Dreams is cool, but that really needs to be on PC with modding and mouse and keyboard.

 

[Panajev2001a]

.


Yeah, this gen has been shit for my tastes. I dont like baseball, they killed drivedclub dev, dont like GT style simcade always online racing, not a fan of Sony style single player super serious 3rd person action games to the point of not even buying them anymore...

Dreams is cool, but that really needs to be on PC with modding and mouse and keyboard.

All things considered, this generation has been great for my tastes and luckily for Sony many people shared their vision and bought into the ecosystem strongly. Remain very optimistic about PS5 thanks to how they handled PS4.

 

[mejin]

Only one Stooge remaining!

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I like your username.

Thank you. Yours is pretty cool too.

 

[Elginer]

I wish they'd bring Killzone back. I miss good old Killzone.