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PlayStation Studios member Firesprite has uploaded six new job openings across various senior positions to its official website, as work continues on its unannounced "story-driven narrative adventure" game boasting "genre-defining" goals.
The UK team is seeking a senior character artist, head of audio, cinematic designer, senior cinematic designer, principal level designer, and a principal graphics programmer, as first spotted by TheGamer. All the new hires will be put to work on the studio's next project, which is pitched as the following: "This huge, highly ambitious project takes atmosphere, storytelling, player agency and narrative firmly into ground-breaking territory on next-generation hardware technologies."
The PS5 title is expected to be a standard flat-screen experience rather than another PSVR2 effort, with Sony reportedly winding down its VR initiative despite a recent spike in sales as a result of deep discounts. Firesprite has always been closely linked with PlayStation products, as the developer got its start by assisting the production of The Playroom, and then made iOS spin-off Run Sackboy! Run! Its biggest game before Sony acquired the developer was The Persistence for the firm's first PSVR headset, which was later turned into a standard title. It then made Horizon Call of the Mountain for PSVR2 with the assistance of Guerrilla Games.
Earlier in the year, the development house was the subject of a Eurogamer report claiming a toxic workplace has led to ageism and sexual discrimination. This has forced a number of employees to leave the developer, with these new roles presumably designed to fill their departures.
[source firesprite.com, via thegamer.com]
Comments 29
I really hope it's a new IP, but my gut is telling me this is Until Dawn 2.
Hopefully it’s a single player game of some description 🤞
@RBMango I think if Until Dawn 2 is happening it'll likely be made by the remake developers.
The PSVR2 must surely be the quickest Sony has abandoned any piece of hardware. 😥
I love how almost every company claims to be making "genre defining" game. Meanwhile number of "genre defining games" in last two years can be counted on one hand.
Genre defining... it's going to be a box pushing "Sokoban" game isn't it? Thrilling stuff still to come in that genre. Feel trapped in VR!
Sony are not winding down the VR initiative. They are still giving it the same degree of priority they did at the start. Which is a very low priority admittedly, but proportionate to sales. They have a couple of games still in production, but it is clear they released it expecting ports of quest games to make the money for them, as has proven the case.
As for this game. I see very little groundbreaking about pancake games these days, but happy to be surprised.
@__jamiie
As far as I’m concerned it’s just an ongoing R&D project they decided to recoup costs on by releasing (and I’m very glad they did as it’s phenomenal for all its faults). Within a couple of console generations VR will be widespread and Sony should be at the console forefront by then.
“Horizon: Forbidden Killzone”
Nah, I jest. But I am excited for whatever they’re cooking.
@__jamiie
I was kinda hyped and hopeful reading the title.
But reading the article made me say "of course it isn't a PSVR2 game". Sad
Ps5 exclusives sure taking way longer tban expected.ps3 and ps4 exclusives games definitely was faster.word up son
@thefourfoldroot1 R&D project! 😂 Well I wished they had told me that before I shelled out £530.
I also think that, given the first party output on PSVR1, I'm entitled to have expected more from Sony themselves.
@__jamiie
🤷♂️ surely we all know it won’t be mainstream until people can look cool doing it? It’s no longer a time such as when I started playing in the 80s and just accepted videogames made me uncool but didn’t care. Look at all the vain, idiotic reasons people criticise this revolutionary tech and it’s evident we are a couple of generations away from people being onboard. Thankfully companies are continuing to push. Some, like Meta, eating the costs, and some like Sony still being a bit more prudent, but all pushing forward in their respective markets.
In the meantime, I got my value back from the resi games alone. Since then it’s all been an awful lot of gravy.
Should Sony have done more? Maybe. But they are having trouble getting PS5 games released without 6-7 years between a devs output, so I understand the prioritisation.
Genre defining, huh? Well, at least they're setting realistic goals.
I played The Persistence once it was playable without PSVR. It was a solid little game, although it didn't light my world on fire and I abandoned it (as I sometimes do with rogue-likes) before the credits rolled.
It'd be a shame for Sony to buy a studio with emerging FPS talent and then put them on something that didn't utilize it. Especially when you consider that such a small fraction of their exclusive portfolio is FPS titles (Concord ain't it, folks). It'd really help flesh out the broader portfolio by putting a team to work on something to compete in that space imo.
@Godot25 I think genre defining has been bandied about a bit too much recently. That being said BG3, Elden ring and Legend of Zelda: TOTK are all stand out titles in their respective genres, so I suppose technically are genre defining
The last „genre defining“ game was Death Stranding, and it invented the Strandslike, with dozens of other Strandslike game since then - not.
Ergo, „genre defining“ is a hollow phrase.
@Batesy125s That's why I said "you can count number of them on one hand for last two years"
BG3
Elden Ring
TOTK
And even TOTK was more "highly iterative" then genre defining. Same for God of War Ragnarok.
@Batesy125s I agree with you, although I think this was a statement to attract talent to the studio more than anything. For me, there are only a few genre defining games. Red Dead 2 for open worlds, the last of us for story centered single player sad dad cinematics, etc. seems like there can only be one for each genre to be truly genre defining.
@AdamNovice i think we're going to get an until dawn 2 teaser at the end of the credits of the remake.
Don't they have e multiple games in development? I know twisted metal got cancelled but its a pretty big studio.
A genre defining game? I hope it's a football game, Konami can't be bothered anymore 😔
And another reason to see Sony have zero interest in supporting there own headset.
@__jamiie yep let's just say i won't be buying anything VR again from Sony!! Mugs like me spent £530 on this thing & that's the thanks you get.
Please be Wipeout
@thefourfoldroot1 Yes Sony should have done a lot more. Porting some VR1 games across would have helped and had minimal impact on the in-house development teams. An easy win.
@thefourfoldroot1 "Sony's not winding down initiative, they never had any to begin with! But it's proportionate to sales which was also zero! Clearly they released the hardware expecting ports of low resolution games for much cheaper hardware to turn a profit for them!"
Wait, did Trickydicky hack fourfold's account?
@NEStalgia
lol, no, I think it’s clear to everyone Sony never expected or intended this iteration of VR to take off. But it’s good they are developing their internal capabilities for when the tech is commercially viable. In the meantime we enthusiasts can enjoy the fruits of that labour. Even if it is only a spattering of AAA quality games and the rest Quest ports.
Oh, and in case people didn’t read my initial comment, those weren’t my words! He’s taking creative liberties for humorous effect lol.
"Big budget" and "genre defining" makes me worry especially when it came from a studio who doesn't have track records of making big budget games. I tried Run! Sackboy! Run! and The Persistance and both are okay but definitely not "genre defining".
I feel it's about time Sony to put some limit for 1st party budget because these AAA budget games are definitely not sustainable. It's a very high risk with less reward where one wrong step and you're done.
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