The very best thing to come of this is potentially more Astrobot. Otherwise this is a massive blow to Playstation, Japan Studio easily has produced PS's most unique games and have such an awesome legacy, it's a shame to see them gone. Yes it is "just business", but it really sucks how great developers can't carry on making great games because they didn't rake in enough profit. Sony can obviously do whatever they want, but they have really spat on their legacy.
As much as I like Uncharted, GOW etc, variety is really important, having global development teams helps with that. Unfortunately Sony is closing down half of their non US devs.
@dark_knightmare2 A demo doesn't count for a lot if nobody hears about the game. At the time of it's release it received very little attention, barely anyone was actually talking about it and as I said it was missing at many other places it could have had a big spotlight, most notably E3. If Sony doesn't even have it at E3, it really tells you how much they care about the game. It's not to do with the game itself, even Days Gone had a significant buzz before its release, but it's like nobody had even heard of Gravity Rush. For example in videos/articles talking about upcoming PS games, Gravity Rush wouldn't even be mentioned. Granted Gravity Rush doesn't appeal to everyone, but you'd think it would get a mention as an upcoming game. Lets not forget Persona 5 had lots of hype at the time, and that had a similar art style/quirkiness. You'd think if GR2 was so outlandish and different that it couldn't sell, that would make it more talked about. Sure they remastered the first game as well, but that received equally little marketing so that's not really going to do a lot.
Similar story with Japan Studios other games, they are generally critically successful, they aren't so ridiculous that they wouldn't have any mainstream appeal, and other Japanese games and games with similar genres do well enough. So why is it that Japan Studios games constantly sell poorly compared its competitors?
@dark_knightmare2 Sony didn't even put a trailer for the game in the E3 before the game came out. Are these the same "casuals" that brought Japanese games with a cel shaded art style like Persona 5. Evidently none of that worked, many big name PS youtubers had never seemed to have heard of it. None of that stuff you mentioned is exceptional, apart from the anime it's the absolute bear minimum for a first party title. There were plenty of other places that GR2 should have been shown but wasn't.
It's clearly not the quality of the game that's letting it down. It has an 80 on metacritic, which is exactly the same as Infamous: Second Son, yet the latter sold far more. Days Gone is worse on metacritic, sitting at a 70, yet that sold somewhat well. In fact GR and Infamous are pretty similar games, both action adventure games, set in an open world and urban environment, and are about what effectively super heroes. Yet one sold well and the other didn't. So as we've established, it's the quality of the game that let it down, nor is it the type of game, nor is it the fact it's cell shaded or Japanese, so you tell me what it could be?
I honestly prefer the State of Plays to Nintendo Directs. NDs seem to be so long winded, and the commentary feels unnecessarily patronising, without releasing most of the people watching are probably adults. State of Plays just seem more focused and straight to the point, and just show game footage/trailers with minimal fuss. Obviously content quality varies for both companies each time.
@get2sammyb It really shouldn't be the games. Granted Japan Studio's game were somewhat niche, but they aren't games that are massively hard to sell. At the end of the day, Knack, Puppeteer and Ape Escape are platformers, Gravity Rush is an action adventure game, and The Last Guardian is artistic adventure game. None of these genres should be particularly hard to sell on console. If they're good games, the fault is with the people in charge of marketing.
@rachetmarvel Potentially, I believe that sort of game would appeal to Nintendo's audience. But the only way you get those types of players to by the console, is to release those sorts of games. Bear in mind, Nintendo has it's franchises it likes to leave in the dust like F-Zero. To be honest, Nintendo has never tried to really keep anything going that's not Pokemon, Mario or Zelda. Sure right now Nintendo does a lot for Fire Emblem and Splatoon, but we'll see how long that lasts.
@BrintaPap It's not always the truth, but it is often. If a game did well because of word of mouth, it was lucky to do well in spite of it's publisher, not because of it. It's the developer's job to make the game good, and the publisher's to make it sell.
@Playstation You're heavily misuing the word literally there, if they "literally did not sell", that would mean they sold nothing. They do sell, just not a lot. There's nothing about the games being Japanese that should stop them selling, plenty of Japanese games do very well, especially if they have the backing of a large publisher. If the management was simply being replaced, and all the developers are going to do be making games, I'm happy. Though, they said they're winding down all internal development which will lead to less games, so it's not exactly a win.
@Playstation I think that's a bold claim to say the games flat out, don't sell. Nintendo makes exclusively Japanese games, and they're first party titles sell extremely. Granted those games have more brand history and appeal more to the new Nintendo audience, but the potential is definitely there.
If there were genuine management problems caused by Japan Studio itself that could be remedied by this, and something new and better could replace it, than it would be good. Until then, this is a massive loss.
@AdamNovice They did try, but it was an extremely half hearted effort. Like I said, they didn't even bother putting a 2 minute GR2 trailer in their 2016 E3 main show. Games don't have a chance to sell if they aren't given the opportunity It would have costed them nothing, but they still didn't. Apparently they couldn't schedule it around the 12 min COD demo.
@Playstation They're niche, but not super niche, they're generally fairly popular genres for consoles. And I get that they're games won't get as much attention as something like ND, but when Sony already has the means to promote these games for no extra cost and doesn't use them, Sony is entirely at fault here, not the developers.
@AdamNovice The games they've made have been excellent quality, it's just that Sony made extremely little effort to actually market them. For example, they didn't even bother to put Gravity Rush 2 in the main E3 2016 show. I get that they aren't going to make a massive marketing campaign for games that have a limited appeal, but with things like the PS Blog and their own youtube channel, there's really no excuse for Sony using them to promote them. To show how bad Sony's marketing was, even big Playstation youtubers had never even seemed to have heard of these games. If Sony don't actually make these games known, how are they meant to sell?
Not surprised to hear this with way things have been going. Doesn't change how disappointing this is.
Japan Studio has put out Sony's most unique and interesting titles, but Sony does barely anything to promote them so they don't sell well. If a game is amazing and it doesn't sell well, it's not the fault of the developer, it's the fault of the publisher. Granted some niche games never will sell well, but Japan Studio mainly put out action-adventures/platformers, not exactly games with a particularly niche appeal.
I despise the Americanisation of Playstation recently, as much as I like them we don't need every game to be a 3rd person action game. Playstation used to be known for it's diverse line up, and this is just spitting on that.
Out of all the things Sony has done, this really shakes my confidence in Playstation. It's pathetic. Turns out everything said like "Don't worry about Japan" recently was a lie, Jim Ryan is just awful for Playstation. It's stuff like this that drives the brand into the dirt.
What an absolute moron. Tesco is a actually a somewhat useful middleman, because it's hard for the consumers to get eggs directly from the farmer. Scalpers aren't useful middlemen, because that already exists in the form of places like GAME and Amazon. They're not useful for providing stock if they're the reason there is no stock.
Kind of hope it's not Uncharted. I think the series ended perfectly with 4, I don't think there's need for it to continue. Plus there's other series' that have been left in the dust for longer. New Jak game would be amazing.
It's definitely gonna be TLOU3. It will be about the big seraphite woman's son taking vengeance for his mum's death, and he'll beat Abby to death with a gold club in the the first 30 minutes.
@wiiware I highly recommend it. There are quite a few filler episodes, but it does a great job of fleshing out characters and showing different aspects of the war.
Not very high, but it's nice that The Last Guardian is at least on this list. Uncharted 4, Bloodborne and GoT were all my picks. And I don't seem to like it quite as much as everyone else, but GoW was an excellent game. I just disliked the unnecessarily close camera and removal of regular jumping to make it more cinematic,
Being forced to pick between Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima and Uncharted 4 (and many others) is like being made to choose a favourite child.
And much as it's a great game, is TLOU remastered really an exclusive? It's basically the original game with updated specs, DLC, and a word added into the title, not really a new game exclusive to PS4.
Comments 1,244
Re: Sony Officially Confirms Re-Organisation of Japan Studio
The very best thing to come of this is potentially more Astrobot. Otherwise this is a massive blow to Playstation, Japan Studio easily has produced PS's most unique games and have such an awesome legacy, it's a shame to see them gone. Yes it is "just business", but it really sucks how great developers can't carry on making great games because they didn't rake in enough profit. Sony can obviously do whatever they want, but they have really spat on their legacy.
As much as I like Uncharted, GOW etc, variety is really important, having global development teams helps with that. Unfortunately Sony is closing down half of their non US devs.
Re: Reaction: Japan Studio's Disbandment Is Disappointing, But Not Surprising
@dark_knightmare2 A demo doesn't count for a lot if nobody hears about the game. At the time of it's release it received very little attention, barely anyone was actually talking about it and as I said it was missing at many other places it could have had a big spotlight, most notably E3. If Sony doesn't even have it at E3, it really tells you how much they care about the game. It's not to do with the game itself, even Days Gone had a significant buzz before its release, but it's like nobody had even heard of Gravity Rush. For example in videos/articles talking about upcoming PS games, Gravity Rush wouldn't even be mentioned. Granted Gravity Rush doesn't appeal to everyone, but you'd think it would get a mention as an upcoming game. Lets not forget Persona 5 had lots of hype at the time, and that had a similar art style/quirkiness. You'd think if GR2 was so outlandish and different that it couldn't sell, that would make it more talked about. Sure they remastered the first game as well, but that received equally little marketing so that's not really going to do a lot.
Similar story with Japan Studios other games, they are generally critically successful, they aren't so ridiculous that they wouldn't have any mainstream appeal, and other Japanese games and games with similar genres do well enough. So why is it that Japan Studios games constantly sell poorly compared its competitors?
Re: Reaction: Japan Studio's Disbandment Is Disappointing, But Not Surprising
@dark_knightmare2 Sony didn't even put a trailer for the game in the E3 before the game came out. Are these the same "casuals" that brought Japanese games with a cel shaded art style like Persona 5. Evidently none of that worked, many big name PS youtubers had never seemed to have heard of it. None of that stuff you mentioned is exceptional, apart from the anime it's the absolute bear minimum for a first party title. There were plenty of other places that GR2 should have been shown but wasn't.
It's clearly not the quality of the game that's letting it down. It has an 80 on metacritic, which is exactly the same as Infamous: Second Son, yet the latter sold far more. Days Gone is worse on metacritic, sitting at a 70, yet that sold somewhat well. In fact GR and Infamous are pretty similar games, both action adventure games, set in an open world and urban environment, and are about what effectively super heroes. Yet one sold well and the other didn't. So as we've established, it's the quality of the game that let it down, nor is it the type of game, nor is it the fact it's cell shaded or Japanese, so you tell me what it could be?
Re: Reaction: Japan Studio's Disbandment Is Disappointing, But Not Surprising
@OmegaStriver Motorstorm was amazing, I have no idea why they made Driveclub instead. Really is a shame Evolution is gone.
Re: Soapbox: The Real Problem with Sony's State of Play Livestreams
I honestly prefer the State of Plays to Nintendo Directs. NDs seem to be so long winded, and the commentary feels unnecessarily patronising, without releasing most of the people watching are probably adults. State of Plays just seem more focused and straight to the point, and just show game footage/trailers with minimal fuss. Obviously content quality varies for both companies each time.
Re: Sony Launches Strategic Partnerships to Support Black Communities
Nice, they gonna release a strategic partnership to actually help out there Japanese devs?
Re: Reaction: Japan Studio's Disbandment Is Disappointing, But Not Surprising
@get2sammyb It really shouldn't be the games. Granted Japan Studio's game were somewhat niche, but they aren't games that are massively hard to sell. At the end of the day, Knack, Puppeteer and Ape Escape are platformers, Gravity Rush is an action adventure game, and The Last Guardian is artistic adventure game. None of these genres should be particularly hard to sell on console. If they're good games, the fault is with the people in charge of marketing.
Re: Here's Some Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach PS5 Gameplay
If it's like a traditional survival horror game, I'm somewhat interested.
Re: Talking Point: Did Sony's State of Play Livestream Meet Your Expectations?
Wasn't expecting anything new, so pretty decent. Solar Ash Kingdom and Kena look amazing.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@rachetmarvel Potentially, I believe that sort of game would appeal to Nintendo's audience. But the only way you get those types of players to by the console, is to release those sorts of games. Bear in mind, Nintendo has it's franchises it likes to leave in the dust like F-Zero. To be honest, Nintendo has never tried to really keep anything going that's not Pokemon, Mario or Zelda. Sure right now Nintendo does a lot for Fire Emblem and Splatoon, but we'll see how long that lasts.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@BrintaPap It's not always the truth, but it is often. If a game did well because of word of mouth, it was lucky to do well in spite of it's publisher, not because of it. It's the developer's job to make the game good, and the publisher's to make it sell.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@Playstation You're heavily misuing the word literally there, if they "literally did not sell", that would mean they sold nothing. They do sell, just not a lot. There's nothing about the games being Japanese that should stop them selling, plenty of Japanese games do very well, especially if they have the backing of a large publisher. If the management was simply being replaced, and all the developers are going to do be making games, I'm happy. Though, they said they're winding down all internal development which will lead to less games, so it's not exactly a win.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@solocapers Yep. To think Playstation used to be really good for it's variety of games.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@Playstation I think that's a bold claim to say the games flat out, don't sell. Nintendo makes exclusively Japanese games, and they're first party titles sell extremely. Granted those games have more brand history and appeal more to the new Nintendo audience, but the potential is definitely there.
If there were genuine management problems caused by Japan Studio itself that could be remedied by this, and something new and better could replace it, than it would be good. Until then, this is a massive loss.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@AdamNovice They did try, but it was an extremely half hearted effort. Like I said, they didn't even bother putting a 2 minute GR2 trailer in their 2016 E3 main show. Games don't have a chance to sell if they aren't given the opportunity It would have costed them nothing, but they still didn't. Apparently they couldn't schedule it around the 12 min COD demo.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@Playstation They're niche, but not super niche, they're generally fairly popular genres for consoles. And I get that they're games won't get as much attention as something like ND, but when Sony already has the means to promote these games for no extra cost and doesn't use them, Sony is entirely at fault here, not the developers.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@AdamNovice The games they've made have been excellent quality, it's just that Sony made extremely little effort to actually market them. For example, they didn't even bother to put Gravity Rush 2 in the main E3 2016 show. I get that they aren't going to make a massive marketing campaign for games that have a limited appeal, but with things like the PS Blog and their own youtube channel, there's really no excuse for Sony using them to promote them. To show how bad Sony's marketing was, even big Playstation youtubers had never even seemed to have heard of these games. If Sony don't actually make these games known, how are they meant to sell?
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
@Hyperluminal It's not even Westernised, it's just Americanised. They constantly shut down devs in Europe and open up new studios in the USA.
Re: Sony Japan Studio Winding Down Internal Development Efforts, Says New Report
Not surprised to hear this with way things have been going. Doesn't change how disappointing this is.
Japan Studio has put out Sony's most unique and interesting titles, but Sony does barely anything to promote them so they don't sell well. If a game is amazing and it doesn't sell well, it's not the fault of the developer, it's the fault of the publisher. Granted some niche games never will sell well, but Japan Studio mainly put out action-adventures/platformers, not exactly games with a particularly niche appeal.
I despise the Americanisation of Playstation recently, as much as I like them we don't need every game to be a 3rd person action game. Playstation used to be known for it's diverse line up, and this is just spitting on that.
Out of all the things Sony has done, this really shakes my confidence in Playstation. It's pathetic. Turns out everything said like "Don't worry about Japan" recently was a lie, Jim Ryan is just awful for Playstation. It's stuff like this that drives the brand into the dirt.
Re: Fall Guys Season 4 Takes Those Bumbling Beans to the Future
Looking forward to it.
Re: Two More Sony Japan Studio Devs Depart at the End of This Month
Jesus, there's never any good news about Japan Studio these days.
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About PS4 Exclusives Being Ported to PC?
It begs the question, why not port it to Switch and Xbox? Just because PC isn't a console, it doesn't mean that it isn't competition.
Re: PlayStation Boss Reiterates Strong Ties with Japanese Developers
I wonder if they'll back that up by having more 1st party devs in Japan.
Re: Bloober Team Working on a Horror Game with a 'Very Famous Gaming Publisher'
After the false promises last year of Silent Hill returning, I'm not expecting anything. However, this does sound decent.
Re: Gravity Rush Creator Discusses Bokeh Game Studio's Darker Project
He's a creative genius so I'll be watching! Is concerning about Japan Studio though.
Re: Feature: Could PlayStation Do More to Promote Green Packaging?
While I like my packaging to look nice, environment takes priority.
Re: Random: The Last of Us Fans Are Placing Pedro Pascal into Scenes from the Game
I still can't really imagine it. However I'll give it a chance because Pedro is an amazing actor.
Re: Controversially Cancelled Shooter Six Days in Fallujah Returns This Year
Wow, had to read the title again to make sure it was what I was thinking of. Should be interesting.
Re: PS5 Scalpers Reportedly Don't Like All the Bad Press They Get
What an absolute moron. Tesco is a actually a somewhat useful middleman, because it's hard for the consumers to get eggs directly from the farmer. Scalpers aren't useful middlemen, because that already exists in the form of places like GAME and Amazon. They're not useful for providing stock if they're the reason there is no stock.
Re: Little Nightmares II (PS4) - An Artistic Exercise in Trial and Error
I thought the first game was excellent, and the demo reminded me why I liked it so much. I'm definitely picking it up.
Re: Soapbox: Bring Back Warhawk on PS5, You Cowards
@Xnx_gaming Amen. I have no idea why Evolution ditched a series like Motorstorm for another racing sim.
Re: Resident Evil Village Is 'Much Larger' Than Resident Evil VII: Biohazard
@Hyperluminal Agreed. More content is generally good, but I hate it when games over stay their welcome and feel like a slog.
Re: Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood (PS5) - An All Too Brief Adventure
Sounds decent, I'll probably just wait for a sale though.
Re: Can't Find PS5 Stock? Play All Night in a New 7-Eleven Store
Hopefully scalpers don't somehow buy up all of the slots.
Re: The Medium Dev Quizzed on the Possibility of a PS5 Port
Hopefully comes. PS could always use more horror games like this.
Re: Resident Evil Village Seemingly Set in Romania
Very appropriate setting for a horror game.
Re: Sony's Secret San Diego Team Working on 'Existing Franchises'
@Octane Omg, don't get my hopes up like that.
Re: Sony's Secret San Diego Team Working on 'Existing Franchises'
Kind of hope it's not Uncharted. I think the series ended perfectly with 4, I don't think there's need for it to continue. Plus there's other series' that have been left in the dust for longer. New Jak game would be amazing.
Re: UK Sales Charts: Grand Theft Auto V Is the Week's Best-Selling Physical PlayStation Game
@Cornaboyzzz Myself, I was gonna ask if there was anyone else.
Re: Naughty Dog 'Making Something Very Cool' as Hiring Spree Advertised
It's definitely gonna be TLOU3. It will be about the big seraphite woman's son taking vengeance for his mum's death, and he'll beat Abby to death with a gold club in the the first 30 minutes.
Re: Ghost of Tsushima Sequel Suggested by Sucker Punch Job Listing Once Again
@wiiware Yep, they couldn't do one invasion and not the other.
Re: The Name Lucasfilm Games Will Accompany Star Wars Games Moving Forward
@wiiware I highly recommend it. There are quite a few filler episodes, but it does a great job of fleshing out characters and showing different aspects of the war.
Re: The Name Lucasfilm Games Will Accompany Star Wars Games Moving Forward
@wiiware At least it ended The Clone Wars perfectly. And there's a bunch of new series announced, I reckon at least half of them will be good.
Re: The Name Lucasfilm Games Will Accompany Star Wars Games Moving Forward
@RogerRoger Aha, you're not wrong.
Re: Puppeteer Creator Wants to Make a Sequel to Criminally Underrated PS3 Game
And I want to buy it. The first is ridiculously underrated, it needs another spotlight.
Re: The Name Lucasfilm Games Will Accompany Star Wars Games Moving Forward
@RogerRoger I believe Battlefield 6 is meant to be DICE's next game, so I wouldn't bet on it. Even if I was a betting man
Re: Feature: Push Square Readers' Top 10 PS4 First-Party Exclusives of the Generation
Not very high, but it's nice that The Last Guardian is at least on this list. Uncharted 4, Bloodborne and GoT were all my picks. And I don't seem to like it quite as much as everyone else, but GoW was an excellent game. I just disliked the unnecessarily close camera and removal of regular jumping to make it more cinematic,
Re: Feature: Push Square Readers' Top 10 PS4 First-Party Exclusives of the Generation
@BAMozzy Bloodborne had help from Japan Studio, so I'm not sure to what extent, but it did have in put from a first party studio.
Re: Poll: What Was the Best PS4 First-Party Exclusive of the Generation?
@nhSnork I wish Sony would put more effort into their "Nintendoesque" games. They're quite rare and very poorly marketed.
Re: Poll: What Was the Best PS4 First-Party Exclusive of the Generation?
Being forced to pick between Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima and Uncharted 4 (and many others) is like being made to choose a favourite child.
And much as it's a great game, is TLOU remastered really an exclusive? It's basically the original game with updated specs, DLC, and a word added into the title, not really a new game exclusive to PS4.