Topic: PlayStation 5 --OT--

I think the best thing they can do is just expand the studios they already own. If it's true that PS5 cuts AAA development time from 5 to 3 years, it's feasible that every studio could be pumping out a game every 2 years.

Getting into a tit for tax exclusivity war probably isn't the best thing for gamers.

Obviously it depends on your genre preference, but the studios Sony already own are amongst the most talented in the world. So increase staff size, and their output is probably the best thing to do.

@phil_j To be honest that is the most sensible. If you look at the size of Insomniac, they turn round a lot of games considering that they have put out Spiderman PS4, new Ratchet and Clank, Miles Morales and I suspect a PS5 full Spiderman game a few years down.

If you have a working studio, funding more work streams makes more sense. It is only the IP's you are missing.

To be honest, I hate the whole MS acquistion of Bethesda. Studios are one thing but a publisher with so many studios is another. I wouldn't be cheering if it was Sony either. I don't like Bethesda as a company, per se, but third party publishers are important.

@nessisonett Its not really tit-for tat though, like I said Sony can't possibly compete with MS. Its just a bit of harmless speculation. MS just made a BDM so its only natural really that people would start talking about what Sony could do next. I thought it would be interesting to discuss it.

And are you saying titles like Spider-man, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn etc won't have a big as impact as say Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, Final Fantasy 16? I think it will be the opposite, as proven in this generation.

I think this is Sony's chance to invest some real time and money into their existing studios and maybe look at building some NEW ip's that are amazing than scrabbling around trying to hoover up exsisting studios. Let's innovate.

@JohnnyShoulder Well Horizon’s going to be multiplat at least, give it a couple of years 😉

Yeah, I agree with expanding their existing studios, so going from one team to two full-sized teams, or setting up new studios. Sony could definitely use a couple more smaller games to fill in the gaps. I'd take a Last of Us or God of War over anything else, but a bunch of smaller games wouldn't hurt either. I'd like them see expand Japan Studio, because they have a ton of creative ideas, but it sometimes feels that they don't have the resources to develop it all in time.

@nessisonett Oh you scamp, you! Ha ha 😂

Sony definitely need to buy BluePoint and help then ship new IPs.
They dont NEED response to Ms moves though. That's bs.
Unrelated but there are still xbox SS available on Amazon uk if someone interested.

@nessisonett PC? It's so bizarre that people get worked up about this. I don't even think the markets cross over that much. I have a stupidly powerful PC paid for by my work in my home office. But I just can't get excited for playing games on PC. I'm surely not alone.

@Iroha Agree completely. It's like these Silent Hill rumours. I'm interested, because I want a new survival horror game. But would be just as interested if it was a new IP. Just put out a trailer with 'From the Creator of Silent Hill', if you need the Silent Hill fanbase onboard. It works for movies. I mean Toyama already works for Japan Studio.

@Octane Apparently they have already started doing this with a new studio set up to make the next Uncharted game.

@Kidfried Yeah I don't think Sony could afford anyone like Activision, EA, Ubisoft or any of the the big players. MS could potentially go again though.

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah when I first heard about it, it didn't sit right with me. Hopefully most of the bigger games will still come to other platforms.

Acquiring From Software from Kadokawa might seem difficult, but actually they've been willing to wheel and deal throughout their history, and have divested from gaming in general over the last 5 years. Do I think they'd sell them? Probably not.

In terms of Sony "responding" I really hope they don't, because this isn't competition that benefits the consumer, it's competition that makes consumer choice worse. I've made that clear before on here, I just don't like this sort of exclusitory capitalism.

As to what Sony could respond with? Well, there are a number of smaller studios people in the industry, apart from the obvious (Bluepoint and Housemarque), think Sony have been sniffing around, I can list them and you make of them what you will:

IO Interactive
Remedy
Dontnod
Illfonic
Level-5

There are others, but I think they're far fetched, they were sniffing around 4A apparently before THQ Nordic or whoever it was bought them. The most outlandish rumours concern Koei Tecmo and Crytek, both of which smell very fishy to me. However, the ones I've listed above they've definitely had lots of contact with over the last few years.

Sony's purchases in the past have tended to be with Studios they've had a relationship with, so maybe Sumo Digital, Kojima Productions, Tarsier and genDESIGN could be added to any list, but apart from say Insomniac, their purchases have all tended to be financially precarious, or in need of support from a much larger company.

I'm just not sure straight up acquisitions are Sony's thing though. Over the past 18 to 24 months we've seen Studio London literally acquire lots of talented people, Guerilla develop a second full team and a third design team. We've seen Insomniac also develop a third team, Sony Santa Monica get lots bigger and rumours of a new Studio in San Diego, and rumbles of things afoot in Vancouver or Seattle depending on who you believe. Sony seem more keen to bolster their current studios with more internal teams, than acquire entirely new studios.

@SirAngry I love Level-5 but I worry that they’d rein in their Nintendo support of Sony bought them!

@Rudy_Manchego I don't particularly like Bethesda games either (outside of Tango Gameworks), but I think it was telling that the fella said in his press release we will continue to publish our own games. All other Xbox exclusives are published by Xbox Game Studios.

I don't think they particularly need to make them exclusive if they are on Gamepass either.

@nessisonett I agree, but one of the things absolutely nobody on here is even talking about, or considering, is that actually Sony were more concerned about Nintendo acquiring Japanese exclusives and studios. They are genuinely concerned the big N are sniffing around a number of teams / studios Sony currently enjoy a healthy relationship with. Level-5, Atlus and Koei Tecmo are all supposedly on Nintendo's radar along with Platinum Games. So Sony are sort of trapped with a pincer movement here. I think there might be more acquisitions from them, but it'll be piecemeal and not a big splash like buying Capcom or Konami, which just isn't feasible for Sony in my opinion.

@phil_j I'm the same. I have quite a high end computer which I play a few games on (mainly staretgy) but I prefer to play most games with a controller on my couch. lol. I don't really care aboout Framerates or anything like that cause I rarely play FPS. And coming from the dawn of time, I'm used to graphics being pants so everything now seems amazing quality.

@SirAngry I never even thought of Nintendo buying any of those, but each would make sense in their own right. Again though, for anybody simping for capitalism, if Nintendo bought out Platinum, that would impact on a potential Nier 3 or Vanquish 2 coming to PS5 or probably even being made. If Sony bought Platinum, Bayonetta would be negatively impacted due to the rights situation. For many developers, freedom to work with different publishers results in a net gain for us, the consumers.

@nessisonett I made a conscious decision early in my career to move on from Rare, who I loved, to Free Radical Design because I felt Nintendo were far to restrictive creatively. I moved on from Bizarre because they also got too close to one specific platform holder. The truth is though that I just don't think there are truly many independent studios out there anymore. Most are tied to a big publisher or first party, and are in the position of doing what they're told. I just don't think if you're an IO Interactive or a Remedy from my list say, that the environment is conducive to your continued independence / existence. Studio heads at these places are responsible for hundreds of staff and their livelihoods, and with the way things are going that'd be a stress / responsibility I would not want. I fear a serious round of consolidation incoming... and people really shouldn't discount Nintendo buying studios, they are on the prowl because everyone is currently fearful of Google, Facebook and even Apple trying to muscle in on the platform turf.

@SirAngry Just going to quietly have a fangasm since Timesplitters and the sequels were a huge part of my childhood. Now that’s a series I would love to see come back and IIRC it was one of the IPs picked up by THQ Nordic.

@nessisonett yeah it was sad to see what happened to FRD, Doak, Norgate and Ellis were top peeps, but I think FRD provides an example of what I mean. EA ruined TS3 with their insistence on certain "things" and Ubishaft just wouldn't leave well enough alone or properly support Haze. Basically the big publishers killed them. It was a sad day when they ceased to be and became Crytek Nottingham, and then Dambuster. Sigh. But that's the fate that faces most of these independent studios, you're one wrong decision away from becoming a support team to one of the mega-franchises.