Sony...What The Hell

[@macpac22]

Live service GOW? Do they know their customers at all? Fuck me.

[@canadagoof]

That's a rhetorical question if i ever saw one 😄

[@Anomaly188]

The West has no clue what customers want. The East has only a very slight clue but are still out of touch.

[@nateg452]

You know what's fun playing God of war not as the God of war 😂

[@maverickrx8]

I wish people would stop acting like studios are out of touch. This is intentional. It's never about "knowing their customers". It's everything to do with "how can we make fast money?".

[@arpadszabo661]

@@maverickrx8 so they wasted millions of dollars most likely before shutting down these projects and you’re saying that they are not out of touch and they know how to make money. These 2 things are not very logical next to each others. Especially after Concord that didn’t make any money while they wasted hundred millions+ on it.

[@mrck8619]

Thank god for Concord……. Flopping so Sony could smell the damn coffee

[@supersonicsaint3702]

What they said! 😂

[@TeryJones]

I dunno, Sony is notorious for not learning their goddamn lesson.....

[@Setogayamari]

It was literally explained by Jason shreier it had nothing to do with Concord.... It was Jim ryan. Concord will never die when there's people like you all over the comment section talking about it

[@keystrix3704]

@@Setogayamari And why should anyone stop talking about it? It's a well-earned stain on Sony's reputation and it's not gonna be rubbed out for a long time.

[@keystrix3704]

Also, reminder that Sony canned a Prototype and Infamous crossover game in favor of Concord.

[@johnray527]

I'm just crushed that years of Bluepoint's time were wasted on a live service God of War.

[@christophergrabenhorst904]

They are mediocre. But I still feel bad workers were made to work on anything that ends up getting canceled ​@Anonneruse

[@deetsitmeisterjd]

You clearly know nothing about game development. That live service game would have been a B project, that the art department were working on after finishing up on the A project.

[@andreseh87]

@@Anonnerusewhy do they suck? They made solid remasters

[@UltimaGooner]

​@@Anonnerusenever read a more untrue statement.

[@Indian_Ross]

​@@andreseh87 Dude's literally just saying words for no reason. Bluepoints remasters are amazing. Demons Souls remaster is still one of the best looking and smoothest playing games on the ps5

[@samuraispartan7000]

Modern CEOs are like dogs chasing cars. They will risk absolutely everything in pursuit of a hot new business model instead of focusing on the things that have kept their companies afloat for decades.

[@P-IN-JP]

Well, you have to take some risks, otherwise you end up like Ubisoft.

[@SakuraAvalon]

@@P-IN-JP I dunno, man. Feel like locking yourself into a contract to make a game, no matter what comes up or you'll face legal repercussions, is a big risk.

[@wolfman210]

"Modern"? Dude gaming has always chased trends since the Atari days when everybody copied Space Invaders. Before LS it was Mario, Street Fighter, God of War and Call of Duty everyone copied.

[@samuraispartan7000]

@ Sure, but I don't recall many instances in which those devs bet literally billions of dollars on the success of a single game. That's the distinctly "modern" approach imo.

[@darthvaderreviews6926]

@@P-IN-JP Ubisoft are also trend chasers, and have taken risks to chase trends. They've been releasing live service games at a similar pace to other companies, they were desperate to get into NFTs, they've been trying to shove coloured loot rarities into their games for ages, and lord knows Beyond Good & Evil 2 has been a financial risk lol. So I wouldn't say Ubisoft's problem is unwillingness to take risks. I think the Ubisoft Formula is born out of the same instincts that made trend-chasing live service games, it's just that while most execs have empty heads and are constantly trying to chase new things, Ubisoft's suits _actually think they know things about games_ and sincerely believe, or at least believed for a while, that the Ubisoft Formula was a winning one

[@V4Now]

"Live Service God of War" YIKES!!😬

[@VelocitySatrocities]

That sentence just makes me cringe

[@ft-Shadow]

😂

[@matiaspereyra9392]

What would that even look like? The play mechanics that they'll monetize is obviously the stat and equipment system that (if you ask me it was kinda ass, in the sense that i couldn't care less, half of it because the menus were not good and the other half because I can't feel what +5 vit does for me other than knowing it means more hp) but gameplay wise what would you do?

[@theotherjared9824]

Concord shook Sony to its core and now it's cutting off as many potential liabilities as it can.

[@SuperFusionAJ93]

Live Service was a Mistake

[@GFBunnyHopER]

For Sony, it is. They are losing a lot of money

[@piotrekf943]

gaas and relasing games to pc, big mistakes

[@InsomniacSpartan]

When it's done right it's fine it's just that companies want the success without putting in the effort.

[@mrck8619]

Thank god for Concord……. Flopping so Sony could come back to their damn senses!

[@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz]

I blame Destiny.

[@Aaron-zl5gq]

Good keep canceling that garbage , god I hate this live service shit

[@paulszki]

I don't think you hate "live service shit". You just hate "shitty live service games". The issue isn't really "life service" per se, it's how Sony and others keep approaching these and are either making complete garbage, are being extremely exploitative or simply mess up the marketing for these. There's a bit of a narrative that "nobody wants live service games" and it's simply not true. It's also not about saturation either. Marvel Rivals, Helldivers 2, Path of Exile 2 have all been smashing successes. And often times even mediocre live-service games will become a success -> First Descendant. GTAVI will likely have an online mode that will make so much money. Call of Duty and EA Sports games exists and these basically are Live Services games with the added trick of selling you more or less the same game every year.

[@saterdei]

@@paulszki The First Descendant is surprisingly good for what it is: there's a solid plot, many challenging boss battles, missions are much faster than expected (from 2' up to 40-ish) and there is a LOT of customization to be had. I didn't realize when I sank a full 80 hours into it, but it got a good run from me, as a free player. I phased out after a while, because farming for materials with Sharen got boring rather quickly (and I didn't bother with three character resets for the trophies)... and I had other games I wanted to finish last year. I might revisit it after I finish a big game or two, provided it still exists.

[@paulszki]

@ Fair enough, I'm not going to go after people finding enjoyment out of a destiny clone that does some things better and some things worse. 😅It's far from unplayable and I've played and enjoyed and finished my fair share of these kinds of games (e.g. lamplighter's league was my jam) so I'm not judging. But it kind of proves my point: This game sits at 60% positive (or 6/10) on basically any platform. (Steam, opencritic, metacritic), which means it's not just critics, but also users/gamers who just thing "it's alright" and so It's the posterchild for the "mediocre live service game" in that way.

[@tyrantla7120]

I hate that video games have gone away from grinding for rewards. I'll buy a battle pass i guess... I will never buy a skin. Never!

[@ft-Shadow]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@tyrantla7120Yea same, it’s pretty fun when your grinding for rewards, makes me enjoy the game more. I still buy skins and battle passes here and there tho. 😅

[@praisetheoak]

I know it is popular to blame Jim Ryan and all, but people are forgetting that Hermen Hulst shares at least half of the responsibility for this disastrous mismanagement and is arguably even worse than Jim Ryan.

[@TakumiJoyconBoyz]

Yeah, wasn't Herman Hulst directly responsible for Concord?

[@apathei.a]

I can't say it's poor management to follow industry trends. As much as the most purist gamers on the internet hate to admit it, the truth is that live-service games are the most efficient way to make money. While I personally prefer single-player experiences, they will never be as profitable as a well-executed live-service game, and that's what shareholders care and they are most of the time right. Think about it-what single-player game can compare to the revenue generated by giants like Genshin Impact, Fortnite, or Warzone? These games are in a league of their own. Even a game like Concord could have been a success if it had taken a different direction, as proved by the recent success of Marvel Rivals.

[@TakumiJoyconBoyz]

@@apathei.a That's like saying the most efficient way to become rich is to win the lottery. The odds of the game becoming successful are so utterly stacked against it. Live service games are basically at critical mass in terms of fanbase so you have to manage to steal from another game that people already have insane amounts of time and money invested into them.

[@theLikou1]

@@TakumiJoyconBoyz Yes, he was the one that convinced the executives that this game would be big and that they should buy the company.

[@thewakandankingtchaka5331]

Hermen became president in 2019 - concord's been in development for 8 years and the Sony live service push started about 1 or 2 years before that.

[@UnsafeBasher]

I don’t get these corporate people who are so greedy for money that they will flush millions and sometimes billions of dollars down the drain without a second thought. How do these people even get hired to run companies?

[@BogusMeatFactory]

It's a tax writeoff for them. Pump in millions, shut it down, big tax writeoff, large layoffs, profit. They are in the business to abuse a flawed system and profit from it. Shareholders are not concerned about the product. They are far more concerned about the numbers going up and oh baby do they go up with this business model. It's just another shortsighted plan that will eventually blow up, but before it does, people will profit.

[@RynKen]

In so many situations, charisma and confidence can convince people that they know what they're doing or that it's anyone's fault except theirs. Some people turn this skill set into a career.

[@Danceofmasks]

It's bro math. One live service can make 200% profit on 100 million dollars? Obviously that means 5 live services can make 200% profit on 2 billion dollars. Nobody told these bros that success in a free market comes over the corpses of failures.

[@TuffCatDad]

Businesses are run to make people at the top money. Doesn't matter realistically if a product flops. If it makes money for shareholders or shareholders think they can possibly make money off it, they'll do it. If it fails, it's a tax write-off and they can dump money into the next project hoping to hit gold. Realistically, these guys have so much money they can just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. The actual devs that make the games then have to deal with getting laid off regardless of whether something is successful or not. It's fucked.

[@jaysonva4256]

If you or I cost a company millions we'd be out of a job instead good workers get laid off and they still get bonus so they can have money they'll never spend or do shit with

[@ohn1892]

No Twisted Metal since 2012 is absolutely insane. Sony is trippin

[@alsybroth]

Well apparently one of the last cancellations was a live service Twisted Metal game. Sony sought greed and paid the price.

[@Vivid114]

A new awesome Twisted Metal game would bring me back to Playstation. That franchise was a childhood favorite of mine.

[@dominiqueodom3099]

I can't believe Twisted Metal gets no love. In an era where Sony needs a live Service Multi-player focused product,I can't believe they can't see the success of rocket league and bring back one of their OG multi-player series. Especially if things like crazy over the top Skins and Car designs to sell have to be a thing

[@FrostyMts]

Mod Nation Racers sequel that I’m still waiting for.

[@wardy4903]

Twisted metal isn't around for the same reason they tried to tell you hero shooters didnt have an audience anymore. Any game can be fun and successful if you make it fun. Twisted metal is literally just a hero shooter with cars.

[@MastaShake99]

As much as this sucks, at least we aren't living in the universe where sony's big last reveal at a game conference is a Live service God of War lmao

[@psyduck8025]

right? bullet dodged fr. could def be a lot worse.

[@highwindknight]

You know that they really wanted it though. I for one cannot wait until the US branch finally loses their internal strife and the Playstation HQ returns to Japan. Sony has been fumbling ever since they moved to California. The most obvious impact we received from day one of that decision was censorship in our games and the jokes about how Nintendo was more willing to have raunchy material on it then Sony.

[@blumoon131]

I can just imagine the booing that would've come from the audience at that Game Awards reveal...

[@jmass4207]

Would be better than a mobile game or live action tv show tbh.

[@SStyle5]

This is what Sony deserves for closing Japan Studio

[@Roronoa2.1]

Literally their best move. Japan Studio’s games were flopping one after another, they shut down the studio, sent everyone to Asobi, and they created Astro Bot

[@Kimuraminato]

This to be honest, live services games needs to stop

[@omega458]

​@@Kimuraminatoidk marvel rivals is pretty fun

[@TortoiseMaximus]

Japan Studio closing wasn't that significant, most of the staff just moved to Team Asobi

[@iowa2777]

@@dean8764 dont see no issues

[@fear12041984]

They say games cost too much to make but is fine to waste millions on live service bs

[@highwindknight]

It's mostly mismanagement. Look at how efficiently FF7 rebirth was developed compared to say some western studios that had to cancel and re-create their project. Most of the current failures are examples of these bureaucracy stiffled games that died a thousand internal cuts, like Skulls and Bones, Concord, etc.

[@haoumazin343]

They say games cost too much only to justify raising the price

[@cjyoung5635]

Games do cost a lot to make but the margins for live service are significantly higher than normal games and once you cover monthly expenses and the initial costs it's all profit. Take csgo for example it's absolutely way worse then any clone like wolf team or crazy shooter, crossfire but still makes bank because of skin sales.

[@cured_bacon647]

@@haoumazin343stfu already. They went up $10 at most in tha past like 30 years and in many cases are even less than games of old. We as gamers are quite fortunate that games haven’t actually went up in price. Now shitty devs pushing AAAA games is a different story.

[@mo533]

They think they'll get a big return, make more money back- guess they're finally learning. Wouldn't listen to us, but money don't lie (thx concord).

[@StartPlayFinish]

Mismanagement, advertisement and Hollywood actors will blow up your budget. None of it is needed if the game is good.

[@carlschrappen9712]

Don't forget chasing fancy visuals.

[@metube1744]

You forgot consultancy fees

[@doctordice2doctordice210]

@@carlschrappen9712it’s not even that, all of that money was spent on shity uncanny hyper realism, and could’ve been spent on giving a more visually striking game more polish

[@lock-s2block]

They burned their money for these and then realized they need to put the game on other platforms to get the money back. Making the console less competitive. 🤣

[@Shak2k11]

Especially when none of those people are passionate or even care about the product no matter how much they claim to be a gamer with their obvious bullshit about pretending to be a gamer and a geek to sound cool and relatable.

[@FOXZILLA5734]

This bombshell really dissapointed as much it made me angry that a studio as prestigious as Bluepoint was made to work on a live service game no one wanted all this time. Jim Ryan brought so much damage to the Playstation brand with his numerous boggling directions he wanted to go and had such a corporate view and it shows.

[@IHeart16Bit]

lmao Bluepoint are not a prestigious studio.

[@TrojanGamer10]

Dude all they made was ports and remasters and remakes. Their job was literally copying someone else's homework

[@TrojanGamer10]

Name one game they did that WASN'T a remake, port or remaster. You won't

[@Caspianstrill]

if you've played god of war ascension multiplayer, you'd be surprise by the potential of a live service GoW game. You shouldn't be angry though, they canceled it lol

[@maybeitsyou1317]

Interesting take. A corporate CEO that works for a corporation has a corporate view. The cope that them cancelling live service games means gaas is over is cute though. Corporation will always corporation. If "Bluepoint" wants to make good games they should start their own studio.

[@Guirko]

Most people can't even find the time to play all of the non-live service games coming out... What did publishers think would happen if they turned everything into a game that asks you to play it every day for years on end?

[@camil3545]

The craziest part is that they invested so much into multiple live service attempts too.

[@SH1NK1R01]

They thought you would play only their game. And all the other games would die. It worked for Fortnite so they all assumed they could do it too. Failing 5 times in a row is a net gain if they succeed once. Issue is they are at 10 plus. So now it’s finally caught up

[@travinator043]

I mean people played helldivers and play rivals like there life depends on it... If they find the one cash cow it's worth it for them i think.

[@CYB3R2K]

Kids can. Aka half of the people playing videogames. Fortnite is a thing

[@justjuniorjaw]

​@@camil3545Yeah like cmon at least make one successful live service game first before doing live service GoW.

[@felipeaguena5289]

Sony makes Morbius, Madame Web, Kraven and you're like why?! What are these people thinking?! Then comes the gaming division and's like, here hold my Concord, hold my...well it faded into dust, but here hold my PS5-Pro

[@Magusguile]

Fair point, lol. I saw the Madame Web announcement and wondered how they would make a movie out of that!? I should have wondered how they could make a GOOD movie out of that. It was certainly... a movie...

[@ArmandoodST]

Astro showed Sony the real way

[@shaunj66]

The little bot that could

[@AnormaIPerson3121]

Mario*

[@ArmandoodST]

@@AnormaIPerson3121 yeah Nintendo pretty much created their biggest competitor.

[@Gabi-bv9ux]

Eh. It os an amazing game but have been good but not amazing.

[@captainbryan9233]

Wasting Bluepoints talent should be a crime.

[@Mae4Ever]

Sure I bet they put as much talent that DemonSoul remake.

[@TrojanGamer10]

Stealing someone's homework is talent now?

[@konuka_ame]

​@@TrojanGamer10 let's see you try to do what they did on demon souls if it didn't take talent

[@jxg2273]

@@TrojanGamer10how many other dev studios can make a remake that’s as gud as the demons souls remake

[@arpadszabo661]

⁠@@konuka_ame so you somehow missed that the vast majority of people don’t prefer the demon souls remake? Lmao. Acting like bluepoint is this super talented company that only should touch the best games ever is one of the most out of touch take i’ve ever seen

[@DoctorCroe]

Feeling sad but also satisfied, lots and lots of players knew this was a dumb move from the very beginning. I know they want a fortnite endless money making machine but so many moves were made that everyone was like "Yeah we could've just told you this isn't a good idea."

[@ingram4056]

They should have known that from the get go honestly

[@DoctorCroe]

@ingram4056 fr they've got some problems they need to sort out

[@ingram4056]

@@DoctorCroe yeah

[@ingram4056]

@ they need to do it quickly

[@Magusguile]

The thing is I doubt that a CEO will ever know when one of these games will take off. It is kind of like a meme, that unpredictable lightning in a bottle that most will never see taking off, but catches on somehow and just... does. Not something you can really formulate. And almost is never the thing that had millions or billions spent on it.

[@moddrew546]

Remember there was supposed to be like 12 live-services out around between this year and next. They have so far cancelled 8 of those (including Concord), three are currently in limbo as of writing this (with Marathon also said by Schreier to be something of a production nightmare) and only one has actually come out (obviously being Helldivers). Real smooth trying to chase that Fortnite money there, Playstation

[@TrojanGamer10]

They're still chasing live service because Helldivers

[@Yasviele]

I bet one of those was some kind of Live service Horizon Zero, they already did the remake thing, the vr thing and even lego! But the people are tired and ready to move on

[@arpadszabo661]

@@TrojanGamer10 which they managed to ruin (i mean, its still alive, but it could be way bigger) by making people connect their accounts to psn and tons of countries has no way to do it as they have no access to psn. Sony is just not capable of making good decisions.

[@zerotwo6814]

While I do feel like people cared too much about the whole Concord thing (it was REALLY a nothingburger), you are spot-on here. Sony is being foolish yet again. I don't really care what they waste money on, it's a drop in the bucket for Sony anyway, but foolishness is foolishness no matter what or who it comes from. Unfortunate what it's doing to other developers, though.

[@kev1nno]

Two of those live-service games are supposedly the continued support of GT7 and the yearly release of MLB The Show

[@clumsyturtle8544]

I'm not losing any sleep over a predatory live service game not seeing the light of day.

[@vaderwalks]

That's valid, but this still means layoffs for a bunch of honest employees and likely zero consequences for most of the execs.

[@TrojanGamer10]

Until a game shows up that peeks your interest. It was a quick 180 for lots of "anti-GAAS" players when Marvel Rivals showed up.

[@K4LAMAWHO]

It’s the time wasted

[@UtlawBroine]

Yeah, lets shut down SF6 and Tekken 8 too. Those scummy predatory live service games, am i right?

[@Szanth]

Nobody is, that's not what's being said. He's "losing sleep" over the waste of money and talent and time that's all gone into the drain.

[@kingryu9159]

So instead of working on a god of war 1 and 2 remaster to celebrate the 20th anniversary of one the best games ever made. They thought it'd be a better idea to make God of War: battle royale. Gaming is becoming a joke now

[@arpadszabo661]

Same with the Spiderman battleroyale that was cancelled not long after it was announced. It got cancelled so quickly that i just saw the trailer with Venom, Spider-Gwen gameplay, didn’t even know it was a liveservice game at that point, and the top comment was already about how its cancelled… I mean, its good that they cancel these, but they could also spend resources on making the next game or remaster old ones instead of wasting them on these first.

[@leithaziz2716]

I actually hear those games are getting remastered as part of a huge collection. Unless recent news shut those rumors down?

[@BakingSoda4U]

It's because there's people willing to pay for it, sadly.

[@maverickrx8]

"becoming" when it already is.

[@Kananaboo]

Modern gaming is a joke. Honestly sticking with retro gaming, indies and my backlog. It’s embarrassing to be a gamer these days. Almost any other hobby looks more interesting by the day.

[@TheGoondas87]

This is what happens when Marketing managers make decision about how to make video games.

[@thezx5795]

Just makes me look at what happened with Rocksteady

[@daviddamasceno6063]

Players: We... Sony: We... Players: want... Sony: want... Players: Bloodborne remake. Sony: Bloodborne remake. Players: We want Bloodborne remake! Sony: You want Live Service Games!

[@canadagoof]

😂

[@marcusclark1339]

no one wants a remake we want it ported to pc

[@daviddamasceno6063]

@@marcusclark1339 Sure, and just like other Sony games, a remake is what would give us the best chance of ever seeing that port.

[@Kasuta_Ikite]

I sure dont lol

[@ZombifiedBuizel]

@@marcusclark1339 No we want Bloodborne 2. No one cares about you pc peasents. Buy a console already.

[@NaikoArt]

is just hilarious how Nintendo, by going slow and steady, is just avoiding all this mess

[@professorhojo7205]

Nintendo could sell ice to Eskimos

[@AnimatedTerror]

Nintendo creates their own messes by being so behind the times and anti consumer. But you’ll all still buy the switch 2! I’ll probably end up with a switch 2…..

[@KoOk-h1d]

​@AnimatedTerror That ain't anti-consumer. That's how ip law is in the west

[@ThatRedHusky]

People tend to forget that a new SNES game in 1991 was $60. Trust me, I was there. Fawning at the Sears catalog. My Mom got me Earthbound in 1995 for my birthday and that was $80.

[@BobaVett]

Exactly. I never understood the complaining on the price like it’s a new thing. I remember catalogues for Xmas looking at the new titles for SNES at $60-$80, and they were no where NEAR the level of complexity they are now.

[@Beavernator]

A lot of N64 games were $80...

[@raulrojas6238]

So true my brother.

[@___IG]

That game cost me $130 on 1998 lol

[@JustinJTime]

Because most of the time they were worth paying that much and the dollar and the economy was stronger. Nowadays people are leary spending even $50 on a so-called AAA game and lots of folks are living paycheck to paycheck.

[@hernangodoyyanez8785]

Jim Ryan didn't care why people liked to play games, he just wanted to make games to make money. Jim Ryan was the worst CEO Playstation ever had.

[@BiriBiri925]

Fact.

[@ManuTheDeath]

God Of War IS a single player game, they didn't even have to think about an online mode

[@-amosc.presley-7192]

Myself, had a “Great Feeling” that today’s message was going to make me cry!

[@nottoday4265]

Jim Ryan is not the problem, Herman Hulst is. Jim had a vision but it was Herman Hulst that was tasked with HOW it was executed.

[@ProxyDoug]

Not a name I've heard before, but a quick search shows he's quite literally the guy doubling down on live service games. The future is grim...

[@BiriBiri925]

They both sucks.

[@jomar0623]

They both are the problem. One was the past problem, the other is the current problem. Equal blame here.

[@fork-man]

For the past 4 years sony has been msking terrible decision after another why haven't people been demoted or fired yet

[@megatennepster3833]

Oh people do get fired, but it's only the artists who didnt want to work on such terrible ideas in the first place. The managers who came up with live service god of war? Still in business.

[@Captain_Kazz]

Anytime that I hear ‘Live Service’ I’m immediately disinterested. Bluepoint deserves better than this nonsense.

[@jadendobson9614]

I mean you probably add a bit more nuance to your assessment of things than "live service=bad"

[@CKatanik93]

Oh my God Sony what is goin on?? They've got less sense of direction than a certain green haired swordsman pirate I know...

[@Gridiron992]

There's a reason why Concord was buried six feet under and Astro Bot won Game of the Year.

[@TrojanGamer10]

And robbed great devs who actually deserved it more. I'm not praising a game who's whole purpose is "Hey! You guys! it's Jak and Daxter! Remember them?! Sony and Naughty Dog don't remember them and will never put out a new game for them but this one guy on our dev team did so you do too, righr?! They're cute robots now!"

[@stefanjuarez6565]

Yeah, because Sony payed for the opinions of the jury.

[@kirkshanghai]

@@TrojanGamer10 Astro Bot was beloved by everyone when it came out; it's genuinely a stupendous gaming experience. Try it out sometime. If you wanna get mad at a GOTY winner, let's get mad at It Takes Two, at least.

[@MossoDaBanana]

@@TrojanGamer10 It really didn't, Astrobot is great dude.

[@kenastro]

@@MossoDaBanana Might be great but not game of the year material when there have been better platformers before

[@OYME13]

Sony has fought tooth and nail to not give the fans what they want

[@aurelion4994]

Mismanagement so hard that game budgets 3X this generation, with no noticeable increase of the budget on the screen.

[@JankSmanks]

I've argued this for years. I think there's a lot of increased costs for studios because of middlemen software they use to "increase productivity".

[@jackcoleman1784]

If the two of you think profits haven't increased you haven't been paying attention. In general profits per game have increased due to new buisness approaches micro transactions chief among them. Average games triple a or not are much less risky and much more cost effective despite there being increased risk with a higher budget. Which is not me defending triple a games despite the fact that it might sound like I am I personally think it's a bad trend. The issue with a live service game isn't that it can't be profitable it's that it's excessively high risk high gain. If it isn't successful and you don't get that sweet Fortnite level money you eat the cost and chances are you won't get it. But the profit margins on a game like Fortnite for example are so huge that alone justifies the attempt in the eyes of game publishers. Think about that for a second. Just the chance is worth it to them because of how much money a successful live service game makes.

[@Bones_]

I genuinely miss the PS3/360 era of tacked on multiplayer. When studios would make their big single player campaign, and then also make a full multiplayer mode without much of any microtransactions. The MP wouldn’t make or break the game, it was just intended to prolong how long people would continue to play the game after completing the campaign in maybe a few days to a week, so the MP was made to fun and engaging enough to discourage people from trading in the game soon after buying it. We got Uncharted multiplayer from that, Mass Effect multiplayer, and so many other weird, unique multi modes for franchises. These live service games are meant to be just engaging enough to keep you playing, but also can’t give you too much reward for your effort to encourage you to spend more money. So you’re always chasing the highest level of enjoyment that the game has shown it can give, but can really only be there often if you’re spending money constantly. A multi mode with an upfront purchase is better, but all these companies are having to compete with existing free to play, so the only way to justify the purchase is to go back to single player campaigns packaged with multi. Except before it was the multi that was tacked on, now they need to tack on a compelling campaign (single/co-op) to the multi they want to release to justify an upfront purchase for a complete multi experience. Reject F2P/P2W, return to win single purchase with occasional expansions.

[@Deminese2]

Aka Space Marine 2. The Multiplayers aren't insanely in depth but have a decent amount of content but the campaign was the main focus.

[@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz]

I swear to god these people have their unborn children working on a live service.

[@cthulhu888]

All these shareholders and CEO's got more money than common sense. They're thinking they've been reading tea leaves when this whole time it was used coffee grounds lol 😅😂

[@furrywarrior7642]

A live service God of War game...? No way, bro 🤣

[@BeowulfTheBountyHunter]

I think it's incredibly wild that they had the game dev that's known for remasters and remakes, making a live-service God Of War game when they could've had them make a PC remaster/re-release or remake trilogy.

[@blackmanta2527]

I just want a new Motorstorm man 😢

[@tropixx_xlr1549]

This

[@blackmanta2527]

​@@tropixx_xlr1549 it'd almost the 20th anniversary of the original

[@7roninatthegate]

Personally, I specifically want another Motorstorm Apocalypse! I have the old one still on my PS3 and it holds up rather well still.

[@bigleo1977]

Dude, thank you for saying that. Pacific Rift is easily one of the best racing games ever.

[@Omnicloudx13]

They were really making Bluepoint make a live service god of war game. What in the hell?! Just why...

[@Call555JackChop]

Jim Ryan’s legacy set Sony back like a decade

[@Byhythloh]

Sony's strength from what I've seen has always been single player story focused games. It's almost like they themselves don't actual realize this.

[@SleekitTV]

Ugh it's so depressing that Bluepoint never even started the Bloodborne remake over all that time, Sony really suck at times.

[@MordecaiSPM]

Sorry but I don't want them to remaster any Fromsoft games at all.

[@4tCa4mzUPqRZZo]

@@MordecaiSPMremaster is fine. Bluepoint always ruins the art style of the games they remake.

[@augustoalvarez6766]

@@MordecaiSPM Sorry but we don't care what you want. Millions of gamers want a Bloodborne remaster/remake by Bluepoint.

[@MordecaiSPM]

@@4tCa4mzUPqRZZo yeah I don't like how they turn Demon Souls into a generic looking game.

[@ErmiGultro]

@@augustoalvarez6766 no, they want one from Fromsoft, no one else, stop lying.

[@cvx5595]

Who in the hell asked for a God of War live service game? That would of pissed everyone off. Good move cutting that off, Sony.

[@noodleman4555]

I'll keep saying it. California was the absolute worst thing to happen to Playstation. Needs to go back to Japan.

[@vanerorg]

Thank fucking christ this kept them from touching Bloodborne

[@doctordice2doctordice210]

Thank you ❤️

[@MyNameIsJotaro]

Didn’t Bluepoint games say years ago that they were working on an new IP? So I’m confused to why they were working on a GOW LS game. Unless they were in fact working on multiple projects? But I swear man, if Bluepoint gets shut down and all those talented devs get separated from one another, people are gonna lose it.

[@eliurban2374]

The specific wording was “original title” rather than “original IP.” This would qualify…

[@ft-Shadow]

Yea maybe

[@SirBranDon24]

Sony went from "we believe in generations" to "please buy our remasters" in one generation

[@matiaspereyra9392]

1:00 don't sell your horses yet

[@FrancisL4D]

We are still getting the remastered collection tho right? RIGHT!?

[@PowderedToastMan3]

I honestly think this calls Holst's leadership into question. He was very influential at the executive level for years before he became CEO, and they haven't really had a dub at all outside of helldivers. Which is really a partnership more than a first party thing. Edit: Yep Holst was just demoted.

[@kleberson777]

Hoist? All of this live service crap was Jim Ryan calls

[@PowderedToastMan3]

@@kleberson777 Sony disagrees apparently.

[@karmascamera5275]

*Concord* has practically Sparta-Kicked the entire Western AAA gaming industry into the pit of failure before jumping in with it

[@DEMONSLAYERSLAYS999]

I still believe we are getting god of war trilogy remake or all 6 greek god of war games getting remastered for the 20th anniversary. We gotta have faith and hope

[@ingram4056]

I do as well because they confirmed it I thought at one point

[@ft-Shadow]

Damn I hope so 🤞

[@Shodan130]

Imagine hoping that you get to buy the same game again. Like bro do you not already own the game ?

[@DEMONSLAYERSLAYS999]

@Shodan130 some people don't have the money to buy a ps3 or ps2

[@Shodan130]

@ ps2 and ps3 emulation runs on near any half decent pc

[@SmotheryAxe1414]

A genuinely good game will always be better than a live service game

[@MaxBraver555]

Currently bad leadership on Sony, that person need to get booted

[@CrossOutBryce]

He did last July, but before he left, he set in motion 9 live service projects. We know of 4 that have been cancelled. Concord, God of War, Spider-Man, and TLOU.

[@Boreasnorm6391]

If bloodborne isn’t a launch title for the PS6, Sony is allergic to money

[@fluffly8935]

Eh, many other franchises have made 2x Bloodborne in half the time

[@gustavobarron2948]

there is an article about that, Miyazaki doesn`t want anyone to touch BB so .... also BB didn`t sell as much as other PS IPs ...

[@Roronoa2.1]

​@@gustavobarron2948Fromsoft games wasnt very popular in 2015, now they are HUDGE, so Bloodborn remastered or remake is a very good idea

[@NoSmoke1]

​@@gustavobarron2948Miyazaki never said that lol. He actually explicitly said that he wants as many people as possible to experience bloodborne. Either way, he doesn't have a say in what happens to the game since fromsoft doesn't own it

[@albertovinicio123]

​@@NoSmoke1the former ceo of playstation commented that there is probably a desire on Miyazaki's part not to touch Bloodborne because he wants to do it himself.Which makes sense that nothing is coming out about Bloodborne, but not even having updates is strange.

[@chrisb7831]

Dammit Sony, just let Bluepoint choose their next project. They're so talented.

[@TrojanGamer10]

Yeah so talented...at doing anything involving the lack of originality

[@arpadszabo661]

At releasing games with better graphics while actively making the games worse than the original studio. Amazing.

[@zerosolis6664]

At what? Making a remake of a game and saying "its not our place" to change anything? So I get to play the same game from 2009 with insane graphics instead of an improved game. Sure, Bluepoint is very talented.

[@Tonku12]

Everytime a game fails and bankrupts BECAUSE of mismanagement, it's that SAME management that keeps their jobs and gets fat bonuses, while everyone else gets laid off. They will never blame themselves for their own failures.

[@نونيم-ي4ح]

Jim Ryan leaving was one of the best things to happen to the industry, his focus on live service is what brought us concord.

[@Thedrewster9194]

How many more live service games are going to get cancelled until Sony realizes this is NOT the play💀

[@thedarkemissary]

Ask a Marvel Rivals player.

[@Roronoa2.1]

They realized it wasn’t the play, which is literally why they’re stopping these projects

[@Kasuta_Ikite]

they CANCELLED it.

[@umphreak9999]

About the only ones that'll survive to launch are the ones too far along, like Fairgam$ (which will also Concord itself) and whatever the Horizon one is.

[@dwaynepipe6387]

🤦🏻‍♂️

[@fluffly8935]

Now just another 5-6 years to see the next bluepoint game, either that or they shutdown

[@KungThulhu]

They planned like 9 different live service fully expecting most to be absolute failures. What people seemingly dont understand is that they were hoping for 1 or 2 of them to be successfull and that would have made them tons of money. No matter how good a single player game without mtx is a successfull live service game will make a hundred times that. Its all calculated and not as dumb as some might think.

[@FancyTophatDude]

Wasn't there a report a couple of years ago that Sony was looking at releasing like 13 live service titles? They must have known that that would never ever happen, right?

[@TonyTheTGR]

"Internet-required single-player games" will NEVER not be a stupid idea.

[@CrimsonFIame]

The only thing that annoys me about this is that these projects were live service to begin with.

[@Nobuwaroo]

Bro, Sony... What ya'll smoking up there? Can we have some?

[@dav2-094]

Bluepoint was a support studio for God of War Ragnarök, after that Sony and Santa Monica Studio probably offered them the opportunity to work on their own God of War game and Bluepoint's leadership thought it was their chance to "grow" as a studio and work on original content, but holy f... Bluepoint is a "small" studio of 80 devs that mostly have a tech background with barely any staff in creative roles, working on a live service God of War game is waaaaay out of their league right now. They should focus on what they do best which are remakes and if they want to do original content they should start by doing non 1:1 remakes like RE2 or FF7.

[@Deminese2]

They need to be handed Legend of Dragoon. They've basically said over and over every year thats what they want to do. Sony owns the fucking IP just give it to them.

[@return_h3669]

does the GOW Ascension online counted before as live service game because of the micro transactions?

[@TheIndulgers]

Sony addicted to collecting Ls.

[@ss4nelson]

A buddy of mine was trying to tell me live service games was the future.. Got mad at me when I laughed..

[@xxnike0629xx]

Well it's smart that PlayStation canceled these Live Service titles before they wasted more R&D. They really need to do things that fans want from their existing AAA franchises. There's so much money that should've been poured into these things that fans actually want. They can do more PS5 versions of existing games (God of War 2018, God of War original series, Uncharted 1 2 3 and Golden Abyss Collection) to remakes/remasters like Bloodborne. These kinds of remasters & remakes should be regularly released in between major new releases and sequels to games on the PS5. They need to stop following trends and do what the fans want. Live Service games were profitable years ago but gamers quickly realized how much of a cash grab they are and have mostly stopped supporting it.

[@helios123]

I'd point out that the "mismanagement most responsible for costs" has been pointed out by a lot of devs as really only true for the high profile cases and failures we've seen lately. The thing that's driving the average costs up *is* primarily demands for visual and systemic fidelity. The mismanagement thing is mostly a multiplier on top of that.

[@TokenCast]

4:57 that's how I got my current job coming up in March. They're not even hiring me because they want to make my game necessarily.They're hiring me because I can cut over two hundred thousand dollars in production cost.And they're just an outsourcing company who hasn't made a full title yet😂😂😂😂

[@DioTheGreatOne]

Sony in 2016: Let's move our headquarters to California, what's the worst that could ever happen?

[@904TallerTim]

Going all in on Live Service is such a Sony thing to do 🤦🏿‍♂️. They got one hit Helldivers 2 and the only reason that's such an amazing hit is because it's not made to be a pure live service game. Hell you can earn your in game currency

[@SirLightsOut99]

This is such a complicated issue because seeing the Jim Ryan live service dream fall harder than the live service WB Games dream is a bit satisfying, but I feel so bad for the devs man.

[@Daqfire7]

What happened to all these Sony single player games having the tact on multiplayer?

[@KN-592]

4:10 cod slop sells for 80 usd in some regions man

[@katsasgeorge]

If you have to lose BILLIONS to realize what your customers want instead of simply going to forums and READING, you shouldn't be handling that amount of money in the first place.

[@Just.Kidding]

I get what you're saying, but basing huge financial decisions off of forum opinions takes "you shouldn't be handling that kind of money) to the extreme.

[@GaryTurbo]

That's why I never trust Sony

[@deathsyth8888]

All this money spent by Sony on all these live service games, they could have made a couple of mid-tier, lower budget games to supplement those big budget titles and pad out the release schedule throughout the year.

[@CeHee123]

Bluepoint is a great studio for helping with ports. A lot of people want Bloodborne but I'm hoping we get a Killzone collection at some point.

[@ancientflames]

Unpopular opinion none of the killzone games are really very good. (But I still like them anyway) They would have to remake them entirely to make a modern audience care. They don’t feel or look good anymore in any way.

[@RDV333]

@@ancientflames Killzone is better than most exclusives that Sony has released in the past 5 years.

[@TrojanGamer10]

Keeping wishing as long as Horizion exists buddy

[@Nero7441]

KZ 2 multiplayer was pretty good. Story-wise they were just meh.

[@sheriffaboubakar9720]

We really need a collection of all Killzone games with online multiplayer in the same vein of MCC

[@deiradinn]

I left Playstation a few years ago, have no desire to go back whatsoever. Yoshida literally telling people that Playstation purposefully wants people to make you buy the game twice. Games that are just a few years old. I'm fine not playing all the Marvel stuff coming or a new GOW. Astrobot, albeit extremely short, is the only game I see that has any resemblance of the old Playstation. They will keep pushing GAAS and will end up losing money on development over and over again. They should make great shorter games that cost less to develop but use their stagnant IPs.

[@ghillieg4169]

Thought Bluepoint would be making a Bloodborne remake but jokes on me for hoping anything surrounding Bloodborne to be positive

[@moominfin]

I hope that never happens. A remake would kill any remaining chances of Bloodborne escaping the PS4, leaving a sad imitation as the only convenient way to play it until emulation gets good enough.

[@marcusclark1339]

a game barely a decade old never needs a remake that game should be ported at most

[@ghillieg4169]

@@moominfin Agreed, also i didn't really like the Bluepoint Demon's Souls remake i felt it looked good but missed that Fromsoft sauce

[@kyaban5192]

Oh my... so THATS what was in the box...

[@Crimsongz]

Glad I didn’t get a PS5 and went to PC instead this gen.

[@saint1515]

Good for you 👍 honestly I wish I can get a Massive refund Right now Sony is straight up tripping on stupid pills!

[@ludajr91]

Why would anyone want a live service GoW game?! Just my opinion, but gaas model is sooooo underwhelming.

[@arenkai]

The ex Playstation boss talked about Bloodborne recently And according to him, the reason Bloodborne hasn't been remaked or ported is because Miyazaki loves it too much to let other people work on it So it will happen when he has time to be on the project, which probably means in a long time or until he needs a smaller project to prepare for Bloodborne 2 in parallel

[@TakumiJoyconBoyz]

The thing is, Miyazaki has already said something that disproves that because he's said he wants a Bloodborne remake, remaster or rerelease as well but Sony won't let him and that it's even kind of taboo to talk about the possibility.

[@modernhiendai]

​@@TakumiJoyconBoyzhe talked about PC port (not Remake or remaster) in that article, right in front of his boss.

[@bdizzle9586]

@@TakumiJoyconBoyzWhy Bro?

[@Mito383]

It wasn’t just Concord (although that was the biggest flop by far) other live service games like Foamstars failed miserably too.

[@kotzer71]

Thank god bluepoint was not working on any remakes can't stand how generic they make things sound and look when they do redesigns

[@garrettcarter5622]

Executives can't understand that people don't have the money to invest in ten different live-services games at once.

[@msbkaioken136]

God, I cannot believe they had bluepoint wasting their time for 2 years doing a whole lot of nothing. Maybe they could have actually have done something that would make sense for their studio, like a God of war 1 remake.

[@Coconut_Gaming_Life-g9c]

These corporations keep passing the costs onto the consumer for their own brutal mismanagement has to stop. Execs are still getting their bonuses, marketing budgets are ballooning to create hype for unfinished games, Hollywood a-listers are getting paid millions to voice characters. So many things that I just don’t care about. Scale your project back, make fun, focused games, and people will play them.

[@gutnbjk]

What a COMPLETE waste of Bluepoints time