Intr1n5ic

@AK4tywill Classic. I would watch it with my parents when I was little.

I hope Capcom paid him more than a tenner for this.

Just got to Costa Del Sol and I'm loving it so far. I've given it a 9 at this point.

Alright, alright, alright, kupo.

It looks excellent.

Not sure why this has become a PS5 Pro conversation. This is entirely down to the devs not wanting to invest the time and resources in to creating a 60 fps mode for console. It has nothing to do with hardware, there are far more demanding games that have demonstrated that already. It's just poorly optimised, evidenced by the fact that they didn't even bother to ensure a stable locked 30.

@ShogunRok Forspoken has entered the chat 😬

@Shepherd_Tallon Yeah, I've seen the same so I know where you're coming from.

I dunno, it just didn't read well to me. 13 people making claims against 2 separate individuals didn't feel like it played in to that, but who knows. It was investigated and addressed either way.

@Shepherd_Tallon That's a fair reply, but what raised my eyebrows was that some of those involved allegedly received payouts for their claims. That doesn't sound to me like it's a case of someone being thin skinned, or a simple matter of being asked to do something job related that they didn't want to.

Great to see some of you being dismissive about the "toxicity" part of the article, despite the fact that it clearly states those on the receiving end sought external legal guidance, and their claims were seemingly serious enough to receive payouts.

Allegedly of course.

This report is all over the place. Some people are unhappy, some are complimentary. Some believe change was needed because of the disorganised nature of the studio, some don't like that change because it's affected the culture. One former employee witnessed nothing but professionalism, whilst another thinks Sony just put their mates in charge.

Overall, it does sound like Sony put a ton of pressure on them to make sure Horizon was their primary focus, and for some, this might have been a project they had no interest in developing. More people were probably brought it to oversee and ensure it was ready for the VR2 launch and that contributed to some of the discontent.

To be honest, I'm confused as to why Sony bought them in the first place, Firesprite's portfolio since its creation 12 years ago isn't particularly impressive. Also, why would former devs of studios previously shut down by Sony want to get back in to bed with them.

The one thing I will say, if there is any truth to reports of individuals within that studio creating a genuinely toxic environment, those are redundancies I can get behind.

@Friendly "because these layoffs couldn’t have been prevented some way or another?"

Some of them maybe, but neither of us know what the full story behind them are. You're assuming it's all financial and to appease shareholders, when in reality there's likely a range of contributing factors. How can you comment on what's preventable without that context? This is why I highlighted your post about Microsoft because we can comment on that. They spent just shy of 70bn on a publisher and immediately put 1900 people out of work. That's preventable, and in no way comparable to this. You can do whatever gymnastics you want to try and lump them in the same boat, but Microsofts example is just ruthless.

A hypothetical scenario for you regarding this story. Let's say London Studios spent the last 5 years working on something and what they achieved in that time is complete garbage. They've spent a huge amount of money, wasted a ton resources, and failed to deliver on the product they pitched to Sony and were greenlit for. Are you suggesting Sony management should take the hit for their failures, or is the more logical step to cease development and shut down a failing operation?

@Friendly Yes, that's how corporations work. How they both go about it though isn't remotely close.

@riceNpea This is the likely scenario here. This studio spent 20 years making mainly Singstar games. I believe they helped other studios in some support capacity on larger titles, but the reality is, this was their first attempt at a game of this type and it obviously failed massively to meet expectations.

It's sad when people lose their jobs and projects like this fail, but considering the entire studio was closed, I can't help but think that whatever they were doing for the past 5 years must have been extremely poor and viewed as an enormous waste of time and money.

@Friendly It's a little different, no? Sony didn't just spend tens of billions acquiring these people to immediately fire 900 of them. Even when they spent 3.6bn on Bungie they didn't do that, 1.2bn of that figure was spent on employee retention rather than severance packages.

Anyway, It's always sad to read about things like this happening in the industry, hopefully they're not out of work for too long.

@Hamst88 I thought as much.

@TrickyDicky99 Once again, you haven't played GT7 have you, let alone the PSVR2 version?

"Now I bet you find a plethora of excuses not to give out your ID."

I don't need a plethora, just one. You seem extremely immature and would be the last person I gave my PSN ID to.

@TrickyDicky99 So you haven't played it.

I hope the 99 in your name doesn't represent the year you were born.

@Yozora146_ The dude is anything but fair. He's a broken record with a never-ending hate boner for this device.

@TrickyDicky99 Have you even played GT7, do you think all it offers is a single track, or are you just being deliberately hyperbolic as per usual to contribute yet more negative commentary on this site?

I got one at launch and was using it almost daily to play GT7, but when BG3 came out everything else got put on the back burner. I'm not sure when I'll pick it up again as I have 4 rpg's to play through now before Stellar Blade. No regrets whatsoever though, I've had a lot of fun with it.

@HonestHick Microsoft overtook Apple last month.

"However the MS & ABK layoffs were all but certain as they don’t need 2 people doing a one person job."

I've heard this being touted. I'm not sure I buy the excuse that 1900 positions overlapped but it could be true, either way, had the acquisition not gone through there would have been zero overlapping.

"The good thing is new studios pop up all the time in this industry and those people could get back into something like that and who knows be the next big person at a new studio, or go on to make indie stuff."

Hopefully.

I'm bemused as to why a sequel to Bloodborne still hasn't been negotiated. Sony must know how beloved that game is.

@HonestHick This is fundamentally where our opinions differ. I don't think the world's richest company consolidating more of the market will ever be a good thing for the industry. No amount of select titles they decide to release elsewhere is going to change my opinion on that.

I don't think their actions are harmless either, and I'd be willing to bet the 1900 people who just lost their jobs at Activision/Blizzard would agree with that.

@Friendly "I think Nintendo’s platform is where most sales will be."

I agree. I'll think they'll do extremely well on there.

"Good sportsmanship. Let’s see if there are more ports this year indeed." 👍

@Friendly "yes, for this year that’s the lineup."

Okay, I'll have a sportsman's bet with you that they port more before the end of the year.

"They probably did this at the start of the year while there’s not much competition".

I'm probably misunderstanding you, but what do you mean by not much competition? From a PlayStation perspective, Pentiment comes out close to FF7 Rebirth. Hi-Fi Rush comes out close to Dragon's Dogma 2, and the last two come out a week either side of Stellar Blade.

If I had interest in any of these ports I know where my money would be going. I don't think they could have picked a worse time to release them.

@Friendly "These are the only 4 games for this year that are going to other platforms. Smaller and GaaS games."

Oh sweet summer child 😂

I'm a fan of the games so I'm keeping an open mind, but I really didn't like Eli's last film. I thought the dialogue in particular was poor so I'm not over the moon about his involvement in the writing of this.

@lacerz Yeah, any exception will likely be a situation where their hand is forced.

A bit disappointing regarding the rest of this year but I'm not that fussed. I don't know where people find the time to play what's already available. In the first 6 or 7 weeks of this year I've spent roughly £300 on Like a Dragon, Granblue Fantasy, Helldivers, Dragons Dogma 2 and FF7 Rebirth. Stellar Blade I'll grab closer to its launch, as well as many smaller indie titles I like the look of like Dave the Diver and Harold Halibut. Then there's, Rise of the Ronin, Black Myth Wukong, The Plucky Squire, Concord? etc, to consider later on.

With a full time job there's enough there to keep me busy for the entire year. Not to mention my backlog which is just stupid at this point.

@XboxistheBestBox You're dreaming. There is no future where Sony helps to strengthen Microsofts position. Same day launch on PC is realistic, especially if they're paying attention to how well Helldivers is performing. Select titles ported to the switch 2 is also something I could see happening, but there is no chance they bring their titles to Xbox.

@__jamiie My point from the start has been very clear. Xbox, under Phils guidance, followed up their most successful generation with one that became synonymous with having no games. That was followed by a new console that launched with no games, then buying other people's games, and it's culminating with bringing their bought games to other systems.

I think he's done a fantastic job.

@__jamiie Agreed, they came flying out the blocks with brand momentum this gen.

@colonelkilgore Never change 😂

@__jamiie "As I, and other people have said, the last generation was the most important to win or lose."

I don't disagree, unfortunately Phil spent 7 and a half years losing it by not releasing games. He then started this gen not releasing games.

@__jamiie I see, and that direction is then set in stone and cannot be altered, worsened or improved upon going forward, as Sony did with the PS3 for example. Add that wisdom to the wiki.

Out of curiosity, who had 100% control of the Series S & X development, and who launched them with no games after ending the previous gen with the earned phrase, "Xbox has no games"?

@__jamiie Yes, really. Taken directly from his wiki:

"In July 2007, Mattrick officially joined Microsoft as a senior vice president overseeing the Xbox 360 and PC gaming businesses, with his oversight apparently leading to an increase in video game installations and Xbox LIVE subscriptions."

So he was immediately brought in as vice president and his oversight is credited with increased installations and subscriptions of Microsofts most successful console. Also :

"In October 2010, Mattrick was promoted to president of the Interactive Entertainment Business, overseeing a range of consumer businesses including Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, Kinect, Music, and Video, as well as PC and mobile interactive entertainment."

And within 3 years of joining he was promoted to president and oversaw the entirety of their most successful generation.

How competent do you think you have to be to walk in to a company like Microsoft, and within 3 years be president of their entire entertainment divisions?

Of course I'm sure you know better Jamiie. Perhaps you can spend the rest of your evening editing his wiki, maybe change it to something like: all Don did was fumble the launch of the Xbox One. Phil is better but is still failing to emulate the sales of the 360 by tens of millions after two generational attempts.

@__jamiie He oversaw their most successful generation.

@__jamiie You're actually incapable of admitting their failures past his tenure 😂 None of what you mentioned matters, they didn't release enough games.

What Don did well is irrelevant, he was a non entity within the company less than 6 months after launch. That's why I'm only counting from that point. I don't disagree that the launch was a failure, the entire industry knows that. I'm asking you how that wasn't rectified and why he is the only focus of your blame for an entire generation.

@__jamiie For the first 6 months, what is your excuse for what Phil oversaw them do for the 7 and a half years that followed?

@__jamiie The Kinect was removed as a requirement before it launched, and within 6 months the console was made available at the same price point as the PS4 with no camera included. Are you trying to argue that the generation was lost in the first 6 months because of price? If that's the case explain the PS3 to me. Sony made a huge mistake with the pricing at launch and the arrogance they displayed was met with massive amounts of criticism. As a result the 360 got off to a flyer and was a massive hit. How did Sony respond, they pumped out quality games and ended up selling more units than the 360.

I'm not saying Don made no mistakes, I'm saying he's been made the scapegoat for failings that extend way past the launch of the Xbox One. Failings that still exist today and are being papered over with obscene amounts of capital.

@__jamiie Outside of enthusiasts, (who, regardless of how important they think they are, actually represent the extreme minority when it comes to the sales of these products,) nobody was talking about Don Mattrick throughout that generation. Do you think kids were saying to their parents, I don't want an Xbox now mum, Don fumbled the launch?

Games sell systems, and the running joke throughout the whole of that gen was Xbox has no games. Phil oversaw that and failed to get games out the door for 7 and a half years. He even failed on getting games ready for the launch of this gen where nothing came out for the first 12 months. If it wasn't for all their acquisitions, and spending billions on gamepass, their output would still be a shambles.

@__jamiie People love to blame Don Mattrick for the failure of the Xbox One, despite the fact Phil was sitting right there alongside him. Phil also took over 4 months after launch and had an entire generation to right that ship and he failed miserably.

If it comes to fruition, my only concern is them using this as a defense when they next attempt to aquire a huge chunk of the industry.

Other than that I'm not interested. If I cared enough about their catalogue I would have bought an Xbox by now. Game wise it would be great for those who do though.

@Fiendish-Beaver Who said they're going full multiplatform?

People are assuming the majority of their library is coming to other systems, they're also assuming that gamepass is going to be available on PlayStation. I don't believe either of those to be the likely scenario here. I think they're going to cash in on select titles at full retail price.

To answer your question, Xbox isn't going anywhere. If anything, it will probably go all digital with a single box moving forward and the incentive that differentiates will be, sure you can buy certain titles for full price on another system, but they're available here for only x amount a month.

With regard to regulators, this will appear like they care about bringing their biggest ip to other platforms, obviously helping with any argument made against them when attempting to aquire more 3rd party studios in the future. What happens if they are successful with that is completely up to them in the longterm, and going off their history, I don't think a reversion on policy is fiction at all.

As for this - "It needs to be remembered that Sony were the first to raise the prices of consoles, games and subscription services, and that they did that because they were so dominant in the market and knew that they could get away with it."

It should also be remembered that Microsoft were the first to charge us to play online, and then after 1 successful generation tried to release an always online console.

@dark_knightmare2 For starters, Microsoft would be controlling what games get made, but more worryingly, at any point they could revert back to platform exclusivity once they own it all.

@DennisReynolds I think they'll be more concerned about why it's happening. Tapping in to another ecosystem to generate more revenue is the obvious conclusion, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was Microsoft trying to preemptively appease regulators before attempting more acquisitions. Access to previous exclusives might look good on paper, but not if it helps support a future where they end up owning Sega, Capcom, Square Enix, and god knows who else.

If anyone here hasn't played Shadow Tactics then give it a try, it's a great game.

Okay for me, Infinite Wealth and Granblue Fantasy are gonna take me a while to play through anyway. Launching around the same time as FF7 is rough though, I hope it doesn't harm their sales too much.

Congrats to Avalanche. This game was a massive departure from their previous work and they absolutely smashed it. I very much enjoyed my playthrough and I'm not a fan of the franchise at all.