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PlayStation Sony is closing down developer PixelOpus (Concrete Genie, Entwined.)

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Krvavi Abadas

Mr. Archivist
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(they were currently working on a game in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation. which is presumably now cancelled.)

with this and the Dreams news, it seems like non-AAA 1st party titles are getting put through the wringer currently.
a lot of their classic smaller-scale devs have been disappearing over the past few years. ThatGameCompany went independent and ported a few of their notable exclusives to other platforms, while Plastic and Team Ico have been picked up by Epic Games,
 
I don't wanna platform war but the reputation of Xbox being all these gritty/epic games over the years feels now more accurate to Sony, not as in dudebro more story based but just the more gamey-video game dying off. I assume the closures mean the market just isn't there for it but I feel like they're missing out in one way or another, like I know of a few people including myself who would buy a PS5 for Parappa 3/Um Jammer Lammy 2 or a new Ape Escape... I can't say I've personally played any of PixelOpus' titles but the companies you've compared it with just make me feel PS is becoming even less likely to invest into. Though the "I haven't personally played" may mean I am part of the problem here.
 
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It's been obvious that Sony is pivoting to their big-budget prestige AAA games, and they've mentioned that the next step is GaaS games.

And thing is, we can't exactly say the strategy hasn't been working out for them. The Playstation brand is going strong.
 
Yeah I hate this fully. This is really really childish to say but I hope the ps6 flops hard so they can take another look at their stance on games and stuff.

At this point Nintendo is my favourite publisher because they are one of the only AAA game companies that still regularly release AA games (as overpriced as they are)
 
It's always a bummer to see things like this but some games just don't bring in enough cash sadly. Same thing with Alpha Dream, Japan Studio, etc. Hopefully they find jobs at other internal studios or even elsewhere.
 
My PS5 really is just gonna be mainly a Spider-Man/Yakuza/Final Fantasy machine, huh

I don't mean to console war, but this reminds me of how glad I am that Nintendo is still willing to fund stuff like Bayonetta and Advance Wars,
 
Djehuty said:
Yeah I hate this fully. This is really really childish to say but I hope the ps6 flops hard so they can take another look at their stance on games and stuff.

At this point Nintendo is my favourite publisher because they are one of the only AAA game companies that still regularly release AA games (as overpriced as they are)
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Why would they make niche stuff when things flop...
 
Johna X said:
Why would they make niche stuff when things flop...
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they barely advertise the damn games for one. like the game these guys worked on got sent out there to die with little if any advertising. of course if you are a god of war you get the 100 million advertising budget to make cringe tv ads but it seems anyone outside of that is told to kick rocks.
 
thoughthaver said:
they barely advertise the damn games for one. like the game these guys worked on got sent out there to die with little if any advertising. of course if you are a god of war you get the 100 million advertising budget to make cringe tv ads but it seems anyone outside of that is told to kick rocks.
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I don't know I just can't help but notice Switch era they revive Advance Wars and Metroid gets a big push like its easy to think they're only focused on the big stuff cause of all the stuff that was helped by having a 240p system in the pipeline but the actual reality is they've let their experimental stuff shine more with a succesful console. If the PS6 flopped (unlikely, Sony seems to be the most invincible of the 3 even the PS3 ended up beating every all but 3 nintendo home consoles) they'd probably try to get like the next TLOU the next GoW type stuff to get as much appeal as possible... maybe something like Parappa as a retro appeal is possible but I feel they'd lean other directions. I feel like I see such a community out of Parappa and FNF which has some clear inspirations is huge like I don't know I'm sure Rodney would love one but I'm probably in a bubble, but like a new Parappa is the quickest way to get me to buy a PS5 lmao
 
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Sad to see, but probably not as surprising as one would wish, I'd say.
With PlayStation's push to be the premium console for high-end experiences, studios and projects like PixelOpus just don't fit in anymore. Smaller successful projects are becoming the exception in the PS first party line-up, or rather have become the exception already.

Then again, Nintendo (and on the PC side of things, Steam) have the AA and Indie market pretty much cornered, and the AAA gaming space has clearly worked well for PS these last few years, so it's not all too shocking overall to see this kind of development. Not that they're not trying to still push some AA titles as well as a means to diversify their portfolio, but the general trend is pretty clear here.

That being said: I hope everyone lands on their feet!
 
Imitatio said:
With PlayStation's push to be the premium console for high-end experiences, studios and projects like PixelOpus just don't fit in anymore. Smaller successful projects are becoming the exception in the PS first party line-up, or rather have become the exception already.
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They seem to be fitting as more of the PS+ headliner these days. Almost like Sony's "meet you halfway" approach to games launching on Gamepass. We've had Stray, Tchia, and the upcoming Humanity. I think Kena was just added to that as well. I think if Concrete Genie came out today, it would have had way more success in that sense.
 
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It's a shame - and it seems like most of their budget these days is going to new GAAS projects and studios - the same big studios are making single player stuff of course, but they aren't investing in more of it internally (obviously they have partner exclusives like XVI etc... which I assume is taking that place, but not exactly the same thing), let alone smaller stuff like Concrete Genie (apart from, hopefully, the Astro Bot studio) which seems to be getting shut down and encouraged to go indie (Shu said something along these lines that he was suggesting the Bokeh studio ex. Siren making Slitterhead go indie, and access all this external financing etc... and not be held back by being part of the Sony machinery)
 
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thoughthaver said:
they barely advertise the damn games for one. like the game these guys worked on got sent out there to die with little if any advertising. of course if you are a god of war you get the 100 million advertising budget to make cringe tv ads but it seems anyone outside of that is told to kick rocks.
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Came here to say this. Sony has been at this strategy where if you're a premium AAA game made by a Western studio (or made by a Japanese studio but fit aesthetically into these Western AAA games, i.e. photorealism, which is why they still give the time of day to FF and RE), you'll get showered with attention and long hype cycles, but if you're anything else, you'll at most got to be part of a sizzle reel at one of their shows (when they still did these).

On the other hand, Sony has always been banking on strong third party support, probably more than any other console manufacturer in history. Their whole spiel was centred around giving other publishers an easy time outside a few hard rules compared to the competition. Their own catalogue, while still great in its own right, took a backseat to the input that came from the likes of Square, Konami, Capcom, Activision, Ubisoft etc., and their hardware release strategy was based on releasing a console early on the promise of future titles to make it worth the while for early adopters. Which is also why they're in panic mode over the potential acquisition of ABK by Microsoft and I wonder if their "prestige" titles like TLoU actually make big bank, are just profitable enough to justify continue making them or even incur losses but the hype around these games is enough of a draw for the platform that Sony can make it up elsewhere.
 
Awful news, so they are closing Japan Studio and Pixelopus, 2 studios that actually made good, unique games. This trend towards everything needing to be big budget AAA experiences is why I mostly game on Switch these days. Can often have a lot more fun with the indie release and Nintendo first party stuff.
 
Makes sense that they are “killing” their AA studios since big AAA games like TLoU, Uncharted and Spider-Man sell 10-20 million.

Now it reaffirmed that AAA games like TLoU is the way to go after the series big success on streaming
 
That's a damn shame.

I hope people remember this the next time they scream at Microsoft saying that they should've cancelled Redfall though. Bet the two-faced fanboys won't mention that though...
 
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Mr Swine said:
Makes sense that they are “killing” their AA studios since big AAA games like TLoU, Uncharted and Spider-Man sell 10-20 million.

Now it reaffirmed that AAA games like TLoU is the way to go after the series big success on streaming
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It doesn't though?

Dev times are getting longer in the AAA sphere and while these games are million sellers, they only come out every few years or so. Having something small-ish as a holdover would go a long way. There's also the added benefits of diversifying their output to reach audiences you can't with these games - UC and TLoU are targeting people 18 and up, so younger players won't have anything to play (though it can be argued Sony doesn't care about them) and even if they're huge hits, there's inevitably bound to be a set of people that just don't give a toss about them and would rather Sony deliver something else.
 
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Johna X said:
I don't wanna platform war but.
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It's not console war
It's reality
Sony is all about AAA sad-dad games (great even) and GaaS
Look at how they dropped the ball in Japan about small/mid size third parties, how they closed their own studios and how they anticipated their next FY goals
 
Aostia82 said:
Sony is all about AAA sad-dad games
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Well, let's not get completely off track here. Horizon, Spider-Man, Returnal, Demon's Souls, Gran Turismo, MLB The Show, Ratchet & Clank... to name some.
I'm not a fan of their first-party output myself, but we should stick with facts here, I'd suggest. Their line-up has become more homogeneous, but it's not like these games are the same.
 
Imitatio said:
Well, let's not get completely off track here. Horizon, Spider-Man, Returnal, Demon's Souls, Gran Turismo, MLB The Show, Ratchet & Clank... to name some.
I'm not a fan of their first-party output myself, but we should stick with facts here, I'd suggest. Their line-up has become more homogeneous, but it's not like these games are the same.
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Yeah
With sad-dad I meant more the target than the contents lol
All those games are aiking for a very specific segment, with serious avatars kicking asses in a realistic graphic cinematic approach with high production value

The only exception is Ratchet that, in fact, still is an outlier so far into the released and announced games

Plus, they are planning something like a domenica GaaS games as for their official forecasts
 
Shame, it seems like only Asobi is going to work on these smaller internally developed titles. Everything else they’re probably going to outsource while their own studios focus on narrative AAA-titles and GaaS.

Imitatio said:
Well, let's not get completely off track here. Horizon, Spider-Man, Returnal, Demon's Souls, Gran Turismo, MLB The Show, Ratchet & Clank... to name some.
I'm not a fan of their first-party output myself, but we should stick with facts here, I'd suggest. Their line-up has become more homogeneous, but it's not like these games are the same.
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Some Sony games feature sad dads, the others appeal to sad dads. And the really good and successful ones do both. 😎
 
Yeah Sony is looking to consolidate their entire business toward AAA development with huge investments. Wonder how much longer they keep Media Molecule around.
 
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Dardan Sandiego said:
Some Sony games feature sad dads, the others appeal to sad dads. And the really good and successful ones do both. 😎
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Shit, they've got it all figured out.

frustrated-frustrada.gif
 
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Mr Swine said:
Makes sense that they are “killing” their AA studios since big AAA games like TLoU, Uncharted and Spider-Man sell 10-20 million.

Now it reaffirmed that AAA games like TLoU is the way to go after the series big success on streaming
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You can do both, and that's arguably more successful. Nintendo could have killed everything that's sub 10m like Sony seems to be doing, but Sony only have the benefit of doing that because they think they have a god given right to all third party software. Pretty much like Nintendo thought they did around the SNES era right before things fell apart for them, actually. If Microsoft keeps pushing to own a bunch of previously Sony orientated companies, even if they can't have Activision blizzard, not having a strong internal mid tier development base is going to come back to bite them in the arse eventually.
 
it's pretty sad that they want to exclusively focus on either super expensive single player AAA games or gaas multiplayer games. even MS is now doing smaller single player games.
 
I get that these studio's not really bring in cash with quite niche games, but man, it would surely be great if Sony would invest more in the diversity of their ecosystem. What are they gonna do if a few of their AAA gamrs turn out to be flops?
 
7threst said:
I get that these studio's not really bring in cash with quite niche games, but man, it would surely be great if Sony would invest more in the diversity of their ecosystem. What are they gonna do if a few of their AAA gamrs turn out to be flops?
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They'd have their gigantic 3rd party support to fall back on.

That said, I think both Sony and Nintendo have reached a point to where their AAA first party testing systems are such well oiled machines that flopping isn't something they'd have to worry about for a while. That's one area where Microsoft has to get the ball rolling more.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Shame, it seems like only Asobi is going to work on these smaller internally developed titles. Everything else they’re probably going to outsource while their own studios focus on narrative AAA-titles and GaaS.


Some Sony games feature sad dads, the others appeal to sad dads. And the really good and successful ones do both. 😎
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I'd actually be very worried about Asobi atm. Japan Studios already died and with their VR under performing which is where Asobi did most of their stuff.....😬

A studio can't just survive on launch tech demos...
 
Once Sony buys Square Enix, I think Dragon Quest will be shut down. Then once Microsoft buys Sony, maybe everything but Naughty Dog and Insomniac will be shut down. Then when Nintendo buys Microsoft, we will get Hi-Fi Rush on Switch.
 
meatbag said:
And for the more experimental AA stuff, they seem to have settled on bankrolling timed exclusivity on games like Kena and Tchia. Which seems to be working out well enough for them.
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Right. I was saying earlier I think something like Concrete Genie would have benefitted from the ecosystem today a lot better with it being a PS+ headliner game similar to those and Humanity this month.
 
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That's a real shame, especially as we've heard nothing about the studio being in dire straits or anything, their last game was only a few years ago and it was a very exceptional few years at that. I hope everyone affected gets a better and more secure job soon!

On a semi-related note it's moments like reading that statement from Sony which is as callous as it could be that I get some real chills thinking about the times when people celebrate companies such as this one's financial success (which is a bit different IMO to celebrating and being happy about individual game sales I'm talking about the $s these companies make that clearly don't secure people's jobs that are still praised) and invent memes and nicknames for their CEOs (the people who made this decision) and post pics of them just doing bog standard stuff on holiday on forums to what end I cannot even fathom. It's gross IMO.

One less game to look forward to potentially being announced in the rumoured showcase too...
 
Aostia82 said:
It's not console war
It's reality
Sony is all about AAA sad-dad games (great even) and GaaS
Look at how they dropped the ball in Japan about small/mid size third parties, how they closed their own studios and how they anticipated their next FY goals
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Well I said that cause I implied xbox and nintendo do better, which nintendo def does and xbox I'd argue the treatment of Hifi, Cuphead, Ori (they stopped but for reasons no one should blame them for), Psychonauts etc shows more comitment then Sony. But
Imitatio said:
Well, let's not get completely off track here. Horizon, Spider-Man, Returnal, Demon's Souls, Gran Turismo, MLB The Show, Ratchet & Clank... to name some.
I'm not a fan of their first-party output myself, but we should stick with facts here, I'd suggest. Their line-up has become more homogeneous, but it's not like these games are the same.
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Yeah fair, I think what I'm specifically missing is the JP studios, genuinely that's always been their biggest draw for me, above all else Parappa. I feel they are sleeping on something there (as is Nintendo if no RH is currently in dev) considering how many indie games inspired by one or both we're getting. Not to mention Rodney Greenblat posted 2 artworks for valentines in 22 and 21 of Lammy & Kat so Rodney has some ideas for the series clearly
 
They don't make cinematic 3rd person action games, of course they're getting the chopping block.
 
Sony is basically in the position with western studios that Nintendo is becoming with Japanese studios: every developer targets their platform. If prestige AA games like Kena, Stray, Tetris Effect, and Humanity all target PlayStation and sign exclusivity agreements, what's the point of maintaining resources in Sony's smaller studios? In a way, Sony provides more encouragement for these developers bc they know there will be zero 1st part competition.

GaaS and marquee AAA action games are much harder to make and provide a better ROI. If ppl really miss games like Um Jammer Lammy that much, closing these studios doesn't prevent them from licensing out an indie dev just like Nintendo did with Way forward. In the end, this makes perfect sense to me (based on Sony's last 10 years and market position).
 
Considering they were collabing with Sony Animation on their next project, whatever they were working on must have been awful if they're killing the studio entirely instead of trying to salvage it.
 
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Many people here are missing the point imo: The gaming landscape itself is changing, Sony doesn't really have to provide AA titles themselves, because as Shinespark pointed out, and as you can see when watching their State of Plays and Showcases, Sony does support and market these games (Kena, Stray, Tchia, Humanity, Dreams etc), they just not make them themselves anymore. Saying that Sony only provides AAAA games is as wrong as thinking they only offer one type of game. One example: since the PS5 launched, Sony made more original platformers than Nintendo (!) with Astrobot, LBP and Ratchet&Clank.
 
I think it’s worth remembering that Sony has traditionally been a third party focused publisher. So it really is not strange they would rather buy times exclusives than make the games themselves.

Their current first party AAA output serves its purpose well enough, which is to keep people locked into their ecosystem. If the GaaS take off then even better for them.
 
uhhh you probably shouldn't use dreams as an example. I'm actually wondering what is in MM's future
 
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MusicProposition said:
Many people here are missing the point imo: The gaming landscape itself is changing, Sony doesn't really have to provide AA titles themselves, because as Shinespark pointed out, and as you can see when watching their State of Plays and Showcases, Sony does support and market these games (Kena, Stray, Tchia, Humanity, Dreams etc), they just not make them themselves anymore. Saying that Sony only provides AAAA games is as wrong as thinking they only offer one type of game. One example: since the PS5 launched, Sony made more original platformers than Nintendo (!) with Astrobot, LBP and Ratchet&Clank.
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I think people understand fully that Sony doesn't have to make AA games.
 
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meatbag said:
Well Sony has shut down their JP studios, so you’re not getting anything from them anytime soon. Hell, they seem to have given up JP in general.
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I mean I know but use of IPs by anyone I mean, like an Advance Wars 1+2 situation with Ape Escape or something
 
Lugia667 said:
I'd actually be very worried about Asobi atm. Japan Studios already died and with their VR under performing which is where Asobi did most of their stuff.....😬

A studio can't just survive on launch tech demos...
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I think Asobi will be relatively fine since SIE sees them as a niche prestige studio. The irony here is they are probably giving that studio more of a chance then JP Studio before their closure.
Johna X said:
I mean I know but use of IPs by anyone I mean, like an Advance Wars 1+2 situation with Ape Escape or something
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Considering there is a rumour Sony is making a Gravity Rush TV series then it may behoove SIE to actually continue investing into these smaller titles. You never know when you may find the next Splatoon for instance.
 
freedomseekr said:
Came here to say this. Sony has been at this strategy where if you're a premium AAA game made by a Western studio (or made by a Japanese studio but fit aesthetically into these Western AAA games, i.e. photorealism, which is why they still give the time of day to FF and RE), you'll get showered with attention and long hype cycles, but if you're anything else, you'll at most got to be part of a sizzle reel at one of their shows (when they still did these).
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yeah it would be one thing if their game had multi-million marketing campaign with lots of push from sony only for it to bomb but no they just dumped it out there and called it a day. bit fucked up from my pov to then punish the team by disbanding it.
 
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