A few months back, it was reported that numerous European PlayStation employees had been laid off as part of a company-wide restructuring in an effort to centralise the business in the US. We've heard conflicting reports of whether this is actually true or not in the time since then, but for some developers and publishers based across Europe, it could actually be a reality. They are finding it tougher than ever to effectively communicate with Sony's EU branch, leading to many feeling like they have been completely left behind by the hardware manufacturer.
Whenever a developer agrees to join the PlayStation family and publish its games on the PSN Store, it is assigned an account manager depending on how many regions the studio wishes to publish in. That makes two for a team wishing to bring its games to EU and US shores, and the accounts of dealing with each region's representatives couldn't be further apart. Some European devs report of losing their account manager completely and having to resort to submitting support tickets.
Simply becoming recognised by Sony's European branch can be a tall order too, with one developer stating it took them multiple attempts inside a single month just to receive a response. A Sony development forum is where they voiced some frustration, but without a single reply to latch onto, they were once again left out in the cold. Things couldn't be more different when it comes to the US, however. Monthly newsletters alert studios to upcoming sales and allow them to submit forms with their games attached so that they can receive a discount in the future. Custom sales can also be applied for at a developer's leisure with a response all but guaranteed.
The same cannot be said for Europe, where this newsletter supposedly doesn't exist whatsoever. Teams have to actively ask when the next sale is coming up, and even when the automated response does occasionally provide answers, developers report that their titles aren't a part of the discounts. Cross-buy provides some extra headaches that a smaller studio probably doesn't have the time or money to deal with.
If Sony's European branches truly are scaling back in favour of a focus on the US, then this could be proof that it's already happening. PlayStation's PR outlets across America appear to be much more forthcoming for some developers when compared to EU spokespersons and account managers, but is there another reason which could be causing this? Only time will tell as Sony creates an all-new role for Shuhei Yoshida ahead of the PlayStation 5 to "look after and nurture" indie studios. Let's hope the European facing side of that team gets back in touch with those studios who feel they have been left behind.
Comments 43
Not liking what I’m hearing lately. Sony need to be careful not to repeat mistakes and appearing to be arrogant like they did in end of PS3 and start of PS3 era.
@LiamCroft An interesting read, however it seems to shift between the European devs and the European PSN employees...
What is the exact problem...Any dev reaching out to the European PSN division, European devs reaching out to PSN in general, or specifically European devs reaching out to European PSN division (last one makes no sense, but the title suggests this might be what you want to bring across)
I thought playstation want to globalize their operations, it seems there's still difference between regional playstation branch.
A lot of European PS4 owners feel the same since the shift to the US began. The EU blog is a shell of its former self, ever since Jawad Ashraf left (the last decent staff member they had), that place has been circling the drain.
Communication there is at an all time low, enquiries are straight up ignored and the general consensus is that Sony just don't value EU customers anymore.
Maybe it helps big boss Hermen Hulst, former head of Guerrilla Games, is European? Might take some time though.
Eesh, not looking good. No part of the world should be left behind, not in a global brand like Playstation. Who knows what they’re playing at.
USA! USA! USA!
Okay, but seriously, this really sucks for European developers. I hope the company gets things sorted out.
somewhat bizarre move, probably will result in some long term failures and regrets when they move everything to the west coast, most companies fail through poor management and number 1 internal issue is always communication, with so many moving parts in large creative studios this will be disastrous
I love PlayStation with all my heart but yes this has been a problem for a long time.
It's time that they step up their respect for the non US market.
No more delays between markets,no more US only online merch stores,no more US exclusives themes and avatar gifts etc.
PlayStation is so big partly because Europe,US always had a better liking towards Xbox last gen,Japan is a bit more keen on Nintendo but Europe has always been the playstation home from the very start. It's where it got it's name so big and now all they see is the US with Europe being second class.
Shame.
again I love PlayStation but this Lack of respect and care towards any market that is not the US is really putting me off.
Who knows what will happen when brexit is completed. Will the UK become the second market with Europe becoming only 3rd?
Anyone who's had to send out support tickets knows how much of a pain this is.
Job completed!
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Well most games if not all of them I like the most is in European developers! I mean the American studios most of them are mostly action based games now days. And feel that the European is more story driven
Not just developers though. Sony EU has terrible support and contact. You cannot ask simple things or even have a laugh with them over Twitter for example.
Perfect example is this: have you ever had an issue with PS Now? Contacting eu support is laughable
Hopefully Herman being from the EU sees this and makes the changes needed. A LOT of what i enjoy comes from across the pond
@Shigurui Think I recall that name! Didn't he use to promote the indie games around the time of Adam Boyes reign?
Great article @LiamCroft reflects past comments I've seen...just this year recall FDG being unable to discuss getting a sale discount knocked back on the EU store for Monster Boy & yet US PSN & Eshop, Xbox etc. no problem!
Shakedown Hawaii dev mentioned emailing the EU store trying to confirm the release date & no surprises,ended up being a week or so later on the EU store.
When Battle Princess Madelyn launched nearly 10+months later on the EU/Aussie store it was wrongly priced (checked by the dev he entered correct price), but legally couldn't change it 'til a month later!
Another indie needed to remove their game after picking up the EU pricing error & needed to wait another couple weeks for the next release window!
Castle Crashers remastered encountered a number of regional ratings issues purely on the EU psn which resulted in a delayed release across several territories...no such problems on Switch/ Xbone (& only had a PG/M rating in Australia).
A factor why is explained here...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pawarumi/pawarumi-a-neo-aztec-arcade-shootem-up-game/posts/2542076
IARC ratings have been part of Xbox/Switch storefronts for at least 2-3 years now! Indie devs are still waiting for the EU store's "soon"!!
Shuhei Yoshida & Greg Rice have a few things to sort out,but unifying the store management is a must!!
It's okay, Sony. I don't really care about you anymore either, and have no intention of buying a PS5.
Not liking the sound of this. PS1 was the start of a universal arrangement of companies at the time to all come into agreements. It was one of Sony's philosophies to a good console at the time. This isn't like the Sony I know.
@RainbowGazelle Aww, does this mean we won't be seeing any more of your super positive and jolly posts anymore?
@GamingFan4Lyf Dont forget Horizon Zero Dawn came from a dutch company. Europe always always has been their home turf. I have been here since the PS1 but loyalty is earned and not bought if they neglect the European market i can always go to another Japanese company.
@Robocod - He may well have done. I just recall him being a really helpful member of the EU blog staff throughout the PS3 era and in the very early days of the PS4. He would always respond to questions, chase up delayed releases etc. A genuinely decent guy.
Jawad, Fred Dutton and a guy whose name escapes me, Gary something maybe?? Between them they ran the blog brilliantly. The place was thriving back then, always busy. Now it's a ghost town. A real shame.
@Flaming_Kaiser Oh I get it. Europe is a huge market for Sony - especially in the UK!
We American's simply flock to the device with the cooler image. First it was Nintendo, then is was Sony, then it was Microsoft, then it went back to Sony. Who knows what the next-gen will do here in the States. This market is more fickle. Europe is like a hard lock for Sony.
When I look at the German PlayStation Store, with it's barbone options, lots of typos and extremely slow updates (for instance: the first FF7R trailer came in four days after the official announcement)... Yeah, it isn't hard to believe that the EU department is somewhat lacking.
@Shigurui Yep, seen that many a time these days-one rare time a dev responded on the blog I recall the punters instantly reminding the EU blog staff the reply function worked!
Totally agree though,outside of the odd mysterious deletion of a comment/post, zero interaction on the blog & likewise on the EU twitter/re-post if they're not liking the feedback!
And if you ask the "Ask/Support" twitter channels,they'll be quick to say its "not their department"...great,so who do you ask, with a non interactive blog? Their store social team(s) certainly doesn't seem very socialable/interactive!!
@jdv95 I agree. Europe is one of the strongest markets for PS4. Europeans have been very loyal to PS and this greedy focus on the States seems to be a wrong move.
they do realise that moving everything to uk slight problem apart from a little island with a strange blond man in charge the rest of us dont speak english
@DLB3 That's not something I can reveal.
@Robocod - Yeah EU support is beyond bad. Ages ago I bought the season pass for the episodic Afro Samurai game, the game was pulled from all stores after part one was released and all future parts cancelled so I got in contact with support for a refund. Surprisingly the support was live via a chatbox and while chatting I was told I'd have my refund within 48 hours.
When I gave my account details I was told this particular support was US only and given EU contact details. No chatbox, email only. It took over 3 months of back and forth emails with Sony fobbing me off and took the threat of legal action to get my money back. Absolute joke.
I'm leaving Playstation behind, so fine with me
@shgamer leaving it so behind you had to come to a PlayStation site to tell us all? leave it out! 🤣 🤣
sure as the changes are being made somethings are not running 100% some of the comments feel so over the top in here as per usual on these stories.
@DLB3 I would love to know where these come from as well seems half bogus to me most of the time, not this site but I just hope the source is credible.
these stories are lapped up by these types RainbowGazelle
@GamingFan4Lyf Not all of us. Many Americans are deeply brand loyal.
@David187
It's called freedom of speech
No, I'm just not very impressed with Sony's gaming "offerings" anymore. I will buy RE3 remake of course.
But I do find it a bit odd that Capcom has chosen to release it only 1 year and 3 month after RE2Make. IMO it could suggest that Capcom just wants to get as much out of the Playstation as they can while they still can.
What I can read out of various comments on YouTube (non-Playstation) channels that I follow (mainly retro gaming channels and most of the time ones that focus entirely on the ZX Spectrum), is that there is not that much buzz surrounding the PS5.
People have generally felt a bit disappointed with the PS4 (to many cinematic type games and to few really good action games!).
No, I personally have more faith in the Switch being the platform where I can get my gaming fix in the future (I'm not really a Nintendo fanboy at - I only really like the 3DS - and I don't even have a Switch yet and don't plan to buy one anytime soon, if at all).
I've had all of the Playstation platforms (PS 1-4 plus PSP and Vita) and still own all of them except the PSOne, but I haven't bought a single game for my PS4 since RE2Remake in january, and haven't touched the machine at all since april (plus I have only had about 200 hours of gaming from it in total since I bought it in april 2016 - and that is by far mostly RE PS3/Xbox 360 remasters).
No, I'm not at all impressed with the Playstation brand these days, which is why I'm leaving it behind, as I said (I won't buy a PS5 that's for sure - AND I wouldn't be surprised if RE2Make and RE3Make were ported to the Switch at one point or another - if they can port The Witcher 3 with good results, then why not)
@doctommaso I have no doubt, but hardly the majority. The majority of sales are the casual annual [insert sports title], [insert shooter title] crowd. I don't think they really care which system it's on, just where the initial enthusiasm falls.
That enthusiasm could change next-gen. Clean slate and all.
I know people here disagree with that, but that's my thought on the issue.
@shgamer wow that long drivel is even worse you are talking complete rubbish but carry on with your free speech as you put it 🤦♀️
@GamingFan4Lyf Not if you start neglecting it. Im somewhat dissapointed how many times we get left behind. Its a pity that they dont try harder too give Europe some more love.
@GamingFan4Lyf Fair point, I keep forgetting the fact that so many gamers are basically only buying Madden or FIFA and Call of Duty.
@shgamer I think you’re in the minority; from what I’ve seen, there is a good deal of excitement about the PS5 among true gamers. Expert that hype to explode once the console is revealed. Several developers are already on record that the PS5 is extremely impressive in a number of ways.
The Switch has portability going for it, which is huge, and I have enjoyed several Switch games a lot, but there is no way I would trade my Switch experience for my PS4 experience thus far. Especially with the Joycon failure issues, which I think might end up biting Nintendo pretty hard with the Switch Lite a few months down the road, both financially and reputation-wise.
And if the PS5 is more or less fully back compatible going all the way back to PS1, I think you’re going to see insane sales.
@doctommaso
Ok, what is "true" gaming then?
For me (at the moment at least) it's playing ZX Spectrum games (both the up to 37 years old classics, but also quite a lot of the games from the blossoming retro scene).
I just haven't had time to play more than 3 hours of RE2Make yet (it's a very solid game, don't get me wrong), because I've a lot going on in my personal life at the moment (in reality I just finally has had to "grow up" .
The problem with AAA gaming IMO, is that the games are starting to become ridiculously expensive to produce (GTA V cost around $200 million to develop alone - a PS3 game - and then there's marketing, online etc.).
RE2Make (and probably also RE3Make) is not an extremely state of the art game technically, so it could seem that at least Capcom have given up on the thought of competing solely on a technical level, but instead have realized that their legacy in gaming is a much better card to play against their competitors.
And we still haven't seen Skyrim's successor after more than 8 years of waiting (and even GTA 6, we haven't heard about almost 6 and half years after 5 was released - and 5 sold an extreme amount of copies).
Making games like GTA, The Elder Scrolls etc. (yes, even Monster Hunter from Capcom) is extremely high risk business nowadays (think what would happen if people suddenly didn't like gaming stories about criminals and Rockstar had spend $500 million alone in development costs making GTA 6).
I simply don't think the AAA aproach is financially viable much longer, and then a "Jack of all trades" like the Switch will stand a much better chance in the long run IMO.
@shgamer You do raise a fair point about AAA development costs.
As for "Jack of all trades", I've played many good to great indie games on PS4, as well as a lot of "AA" tweener titles on it; I think PlayStation has done a good job of catering to many different interests at multiple price points. I hope Sony continues to do that. I think both Nintendo and Sony have their own niche.
@doctommaso
It's true that of course the PS4 has probably at least as big a library as the Switch, but it doesn't have the portability option that the Switches have.
@shgamer Yeah, I think if I liked gaming on a small screen, and if I hadn't had two Joycons break down with drift issues in the past month, I'd feel more positive overall about the Switch portably. I still really like it a lot and play it mostly in docked mode, anyway. But I acknowledge it's a great option for many.
Why do they need to “restructure” to save a few more dollars? I mean they’re making a fortune with PSN and are being greedy. These types of actions are what hurt companies long term just to save a few in the short term.
This is the problem when you have shareholders to please. Greed takes control...
From the USA I can tell you the grass is not greener on the other side of the pond. First step of rebuilding is tearing everything apart there is going to be a big mess for a while. Because of the customers we are moving to a automated and digital future. The personal days are ending. Retail sales are slowing. PSN is our Steam now press a number and listen to the next recording. I live in the USA and Push Square is the best fan site I can find go figure?
@ApostateMage Depends if Sony keep doing stupid things.
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