PlayStation London Studio Shares a Farewell Message Following Closure

Well was not founded in 2022 but yeah, sony probably should have moved them onto a more impactful project other than singatar, VR and a live service game much earlier

Wonder what they were doing during the timeframe of the announcement of the closure to today since the game was cancelled I wonder what they did with the time, it's been a couple months.

I still boot up the Wonderbook every now again and play Book of Spells with my niece. RIP London Studio

Oh yeah this was when the ceo visited them and took pictures the day before the announcement

@Americansamurai1 Closing a business takes time to do responsibly, as I'm sure Sony would have wanted to ensure.

Special thanks to Jim Ryan, of course.

I don’t understand why blood and truth hasn’t been ported to PSVR2? It’s bizarre

Some great stuff came from that Studio over the years. Blood and Truth was amazing.

@StrickenBiged so was management the only people left at the studio or were artists and coding also still working at the time? If so what were they doing? Just curious to see if they were working on stuff from another studio or transferring assets.

Idc if people say that they haven’t released anything noteworthy over the past several years.

The PS5 is going through a first party drought currently, and smaller studios like London could have been put on smaller, AA projects to fill the gaps.

Between this and Pixelopus, I’m quite disappointed.

@BeerIsAwesome put some respect on The Getaway

Such a shame to see!
I used to work round the corner from them and when I'd pop into the nearby Costa, I'd usually see some of the devs chatting about their new VR work (once saw Alex Evans from Media Molecule too)... I even had a job interview with them in 2016 just before the launch of PSVR1.

Unfortunate The Getaway 3 never came to light, nor a PSVR2 sequel to Blood & Truth.

@Boucho11 perhaps it didn't sell well at all? It's really bizarre. Same with several other games

@Ainu20 I‘m still baffled by his d******* move to 1) celebrating his retirement with his former employees and then 2) five (!) days later closing the studio from remote California, probably with a „hard, heartbreaking decisions made“ BS email.

How can you be so emotionally corrupted?

I wonder if Sony Axing so many in England isn't relative to cost of living/exchange rates etc. I know the pound is the standard in the right perspective. I'm purely speculating and don't have a clue lol. Also you can see none of their titles, as great as they were, sold like crazy

Would have loved to see an Eyepet in VR🥲

Yet another studio, that could have made a bunch of AA games, to fill the void between the AAA games...

Knew it was coming but it doesn't soften the blow . 900 jobs lost in any industry is bad news . All the best to those affected .

Looks like chase for GaaS start to kill studios. How about rename it as Blood Money Games ???

Damn shame, but not surprising, given Sony's current over-confident, cocky and rude attitude. I hope these people find a new job soon

I never understood why Sony allowed Singstar to die. Bearing in mind the wider group owns multiple record labels, the DLC was a license to print money and free advertising for their label's artists.

I know most gamers weren't interested, but lots of casual players bought PS2s and PS3s just to play Singstar.

An integrated Spotify subscription model would have been amazing.

Fond memories of playing Eyelet with my kids too.

It was a far from perfect game, The Getaway, but I had so much fun with it back in the day.

Better times for devs soon, I hope! The total is really adding up!

Lots of memories playing SingStar with the family.

Played EyePet, too - had to import a copy as I recall, it either wasn't available in the US or hadn't arrived yet, but was a bit underwhelmed with that one. Fun idea, mediocre implementation.

Sad to see these closures. It's not quite the same level of desolation as over on the green side, but the whole industry seems to be downsizing. Here's hoping people can land on their feet and find success and profit in other projects.

Wish they made new getaway and gangs of London games before they closed. I know the psp game looked bad, but would probably be good now if made for this gen.

The Getaway was such a good game. Folks like to bring up what big companies do to devs, these guys basically became the R&D department that landed 2 hits and a fun concept.

Hoping they all land sweet dev jobs elsewhere.

I'm sorry but this is the main reason I've lost interest in PlayStation this gen. They've closed down all their experimental studios. If it's not a big budget, movie-like, then Sony aren't interested. Another great studio gone that will be missed, just like Japan Studio. I won't be surprised if Media Molecule and Astro Studio follow soon.

The only games from London Studio that i've played was The Getaway, Porse Challenge, and Erica. Despite all the flaws i really enjoyed those games.

So it's quite sad to see this studio got closed down when they could revive The Getaway 3, Eight Days, and keeps pumping SingStar for mainstream / casual audience. But old Jimbo wants moreeeee live service games that never been Sony 1st party specialty :/

This was never a top tier studio - their games received middling reviews pretty consistently. They never released a game that saw mass appeal or any acclaim beyond a game reaching a limited cult favorite status, like The Getaway games or Blood and Truth. They are right there with Pixelopus and Japan Studio in terms of the role they filled - two other studios which got the axe recently.

And despite that, this closure hurts the most of any yet. London Studio has pedigree as making experimental titles and AA entries - something Sony needs right now, badly. AA games are an endangered species. Nowadays it's either indies or AAA blockbusters that follow a really samey template. We all know the one: Horizon, God of War, Days Gone, Death Stranding, Spiderman.

Now we get barren release schedules between AAA open world cinematic action extravaganzas with RPG-lite elements. It is all so damn cynical. Compare the first party releases on the PS5 to PS1, PS2, and PS3. Where are the Concrete Genies, the Twisted Metals, the Medievils, the Wipeouts, the Motorstorms?

Been playing primarily Sony consoles since PS1. Something is deeply wrong in the house of Sony. I don't like where any of this is going.

Go on, go ahead and shut down Media Molecule already. It's already as good as done and we all know it. So we can get God of War 7: Electric Boogaloo in seven years instead of eight. Gotta make sure the profits grow for the next quarterly results, who gives a damn where the company is in ten years. The shareholders don't care, they will dump the stock from their portfolios as soons as it dips. The execs don't care, they will be retired by then. Why are all the decisions made - TODAY - being made for people who won't be here tomorrow? Money. Money of the short-term variety, is the answer.

I love the smell of capitalism in the morning.

A great studio. I don't own Buzz but I do Eye Toy (always had the camera even though sold and re-bought the Eye Toy games), always kept Singstar (don't play it anymore and one of my mics is broken) for PS2 and only 1 PS3 entry I've seen other PS3 ones but not interest.

I am not into casual games as much, there is a few and more so Rhythm Heaven or WarioWare from Nintendo as I like the microgame spin they offer of those games, the few times I've liked party games actually.

But I find a charm in EyeToy or SingStar. I mean DDR, Just Dance and more I never got into and don't want to. I have no interest in the songs in them but they suit a casual audience but after Celebrations on PS4 which I never knew existed till finding in a bargain bin along with other Playlink games.

Ah PSVR one games they offered yep what a time.

I saw copies of Singstar Celebration for PS4 (don't own) under the Playlink brand the smartphone co-op or competitive party games and I own 4 Playlink games, got the apps and trialed them out solo with 2 phones. I think Hidden Agenda by the Until Dawn/Dark Picture studio is really cool.

Some casual approaches made sense, whether they did well no idea as I never heard about them only from physical games did I ever come across them. Digital unlike as I think they got delisted.

I never played the Getaway but I respected it and Blood and Truth felt like a more linear but continuation of the ideas they had in it. RIP that PS3 Getaway game that got cancelled.

Experimental studios die RIP Japan umbrella of studios and London.

@Topov81 I agree. Just Dance and others have a good spin on music games and music/party games work well if done right for a casual audience or the odd hardcore gamer fine with playing them. I'm not into them but I had my SingStar PS2/early 3 experiences or Eye Toy. Not so much PS4 other than collecting such games/researching them.

As eh as Everybody 1-2 Switch is I mean it and Playlink have a lot in common for a 10 year gap and even then Wii/Switch Nintendo has been pushing many casual games. So it's odd to see Sony sort of pull back on them as some still enjoy a party game or too not just always on their phones. Or a board game (physical or digital versions) or cards or something.

Singstar Celebrations was for PS4 after the PS2/3 bundles (or the online focus of songs in the PS3 era ones I think I only got the first PS3 Singstar game I didn't know about others till finding them in a retro game store, I haven't bought them as the music doesn't interest me in them but still I was surprised how many Eye Toy, Singstar or Buzz games existed the more I saw or the more I looked into the games part of that brand) but I only know about it from a bargain bin of Playlink games (the smartphone party games for casuals on PS4 around 2014/2015 or so) and even then I never heard of it till doing research.

I think Sony just gave up after a while and went for PSVR or just what they are doing now is just games of the sort nowadays and going well that will work with PC releases why try with casuals it seems when they can just do so with their major releases on PS5 and make them approachable/accessible and tv shows/movies to get people experiencing the IPs that way and have a few move to PS5 I guess?

@RainbowGazelle Same here. While I dropped off over time (only Indies and AAs these days) to buy a Vita 2017, Wii U 2018, 3DS 2020, Switch 2021 I did still pick up Knack 2, Gravity Rush, Dreams (got last guardian later like months ago with Mario Tennis 3DS as the last 3DS game or so in Gamestop/EB in my area had) but more and more the direction threw me off.

I've enjoyed my gaps of Nintendo I missed and Xbox One I used more (mostly OG Xbox/360 but still the Xbox One games I missed as I barely used my Xbox One) than I thought while collecting for PS4/Xbox One and older consoles.

I'm not against them pushing for what works or casual audiences but I mean gamers are only so loyal until there is nothing for them to 'break up with the other titles' or anything they want if it's 'only those titles and they have no interest so why should they convert or be happy their favourite IPs changed for this new audience or are stagnating on ideas' but every little bit counts of money, apparently not to them with creative projects.

They will hit a ceiling of an audience (besides the TV/movie draw in or PC) and they go oh we get money from people still using our platform for multiplayer or Indies well what if we do go elsewhere.

With Bokeh's Splitterhead coming soon and Claphands doing the sports game on Switch among other things and many creative experiences elsewhere but the ones we look to disappearing big business is just getting more and more formuliac and sad.

I mean PS3 IPs I didn't like from 3rd parties got sequels on PS4 and I have skipped them all. If they didn't work for me then why would I force myself to play what I already had interest in. It's like they want us to do that even though it's for audiences that already exist and word spreading for big IP. Yep sure.

@Ainu20
Yes, of course, he decided that all by himself. Jim, Phil, Hermen, all CEOs are just puppets commissioned by.