Collin Moriarty says Sony will face consequences for purchasing studios without working with them previously

[Etifilio]

i'll add more, Evolution Studios delivered for a decade very successful Motorstorm games and the studio got closed over ONE game that underperformed, Driveclub, which is the best looking racing game in ages, Sony were too harsh on that studio, they could be the Arcade Racer studio, so if even Evolution, after years of delivering great Motorstorm games got closed, why should Firewalk remain open? if they get another chance, will they go singleplayer which is safer or will they bet on another GAAs game that by the time it comes out will probably be outdated in the genre like Concord? it's good to remember when Concord started its development, Overwatch was the biggest thing in gaming, it won Game Of The Year in 2016 over Uncharted 4, for example, so NO, singleplayer/GAAs game development doesn't equate to one another.

 

[quest4441]

That's not how business works. GAAS might be higher risk, but it clearly brings significantly higher rewards as well. PlayStation knows where the industry is headed and they don't want to be flatfooted as GAAS continues to grow into its dominant position.

My man for all the deepthroating you do for GaaS, the most popular ones are from a decade back. Even GAF had enough of your half baked pseudo intellectual BS, good grief pontificate somewhere else

 

[Etifilio]

Well I think he's right in one thing, which is that Firewalk's character design artists and the people who greenlit those are probably unemployable at the moment.



Bungie's purchase was meant to use their expertise in GaaS to boost Sony's push in that area.
Plus, back in 2021 their revenue was estimated to be around $500M/year and growing, so it's not like Sony was overpaying too much for the business.

there were other studios with very successful GAAs games, like Mihoyo for example, would be actually smarter since they have expertize in both GAAs and Mobile fronts, Sony got too impressed with Desiny's longevity they completely ignored all the cons and risks that could come with this acquisition, they made a mistake and it's about time people in the PlayStation community start to realize that Sony also commits mistakes, this generation is full of mistakes and we're only in the half of it. the 60% level of money spent on GAAs won't come back. inside this 60% were games like Twisted Metal and The Last Of Us Factions which were cancelled after many years of development and games like Concord and FairGame$ that are looking to be the biggest failures in the SIE history, the time spent on development also won't come back, Naughty Dog might possibly skip this generation because of this.

 

[Etifilio]

My man for all the deepthroating you do for GaaS, the most popular ones are from a decade back. Even GAF had enough of your half baked pseudo intellectual BS, good grief pontificate somewhere else

Sony basically spent 3.6B dollars to own Destiny and that's all, Marathon will fail too

 

[ToTTenTranz]

it's about time people in the PlayStation community start to realize that Sony also commits mistakes

Oh Sony commits mistakes, everyone knows that.

 

[CrackmanNL]

MS was literally taking away major live-service revenues in their control and potentially taking away from the PS platform.
No-one would'v predicted the shenanigans Jim Ryan pulled in court would turn out in them keeping CoD for at least a decade and result in Xbox basically going 3rd party, now Xbox will be Sony's biggest live-service partner. It's easy to talk in hindsight since the pressure to act is gone.

PS relied on 3rd party for MP last gen; CoD, Fortnite, Destiny & Overwatch were the staples on PS4. Two were taken away by MS, they could not afford Epic (partnership in other areas) so it made sense to go after Bungie someone that has made MP titles for over 20 years successfully and were the only live-service ''publisher'' they could afford.

If Overwatch (one of the biggest MP title on PS4 was pulled away) you had Concord to replace it so from a strategic standpoint; Synergy with Bungie and own a FPS studio (they had none) internally, it all made sense imo. Despite the game flopping you can tell the devs can make high production level fps. Should Sony have waited to purchase them ofc I get that side of the argument but they have explicitly stated they expected some to fail but only need one to succeed. Sony had the biggest hit and flop in their first year of live-service outing and from the business meeting and lay-offs they have already pulled back heavily.

But let's not act Sony never failed like they did for decades to create a Halo killer.

 

[arvfab]

I don't agree. Sure, it's risky, but risk might be worthy. Waiting for a studio to be successful before buying it, could mean either having to pay a lot more for it or even losing the studio all together, if someone else is first.

Sure Concord is a flop and Sony should've done something to prevent it, but I'd rather they let new studios try (and maybe fail) with GAAS, than letting their main studios waste time and resources which could be spent on proper games instead.

 

[Danja]

Of course this thread devolves into a shit on Concord / FireWalk thread

 

[Etifilio]

MS was literally taking away major live-service revenues in their control and potentially taking away from the PS platform.
No-one would'v predicted the shenanigans Jim Ryan pulled in court would turn out in them keeping CoD for at least a decade and result in Xbox basically going 3rd party, now Xbox will be Sony's biggest live-service partner. It's easy to talk in hindsight since the pressure to act is gone.

PS relied on 3rd party for MP last gen; CoD, Fortnite, Destiny & Overwatch were the staples on PS4. Two were taken away by MS, they could not afford Epic (partnership in other areas) so it made sense to go after Bungie someone that has made MP titles for over 20 years successfully and were the only live-service ''publisher'' they could afford.

If Overwatch (one of the biggest MP title on PS4 was pulled away) you had Concord to replace it so from a strategic standpoint; Synergy with Bungie and own a FPS studio (they had none) internally, it all made sense imo. Despite the game flopping you can tell the devs can make high production level fps. Should Sony have waited to purchase them ofc I get that side of the argument but they have explicitly stated they expected some to fail but only need one to succeed. Sony had the biggest hit and flop in their first year of live-service outing and from the business meeting and lay-offs they have already pulled back heavily.

But let's not act Sony never failed like they did for decades to create a Halo killer.

that's the problem, Sony panic reacts to moves MS makes, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. they had whole slides in that Insomniac data breach about putting PS Plus on Firestrick/Roku devices and Smart TVs because they were afraid of in their own words of being "leapfrogged" by Xbox, not even 24 months later and now Xbox is putting all their first party games on PlayStation because their acquisitions backfired on them and their hardware division is sinking because of these dumb decisions like PC releases, like GamePass on multiple devices and etc, Sony should NOT look at what Microsoft is doing and try to replicate it, they should stay on their own lane and in what they know that works, that's how companies like Apple frustated Microsoft and closed whole hardware divisions like the Zune, what frustrates me about modern PlayStation is that they're simply making their products undesirable like Microsoft does, and this is not the Sony i know, Nintendo is the perfect example to be followed, their games are $60/$70, never come down in prices, they don't have subscription services that cannibalize sales, they seem to have a better view of their own future than Sony does for PlayStation

 

[Etifilio]

Of course this thread devolves into a shit on Concord / FireWalk thread

i'm not trashing or shitting on anyone, i'm just saying the aggressive GAAs approach was wrong, and it was.

 

[Danja]

i'm not trashing or shitting on anyone, i'm just saying the aggressive GAAs approach was wrong, and it was.

The GaaS was necessary, how they went about executing it was stupid since they should have never had traditional single player studios touching GaaS. Their GaaS strategy simply should have started in 2013... Which is kinda crazy to think about since they killed off all their Multiplayer studies between 2010 - 2012... Had they not done this and brought over some PS3 multiplayers they'd definitely be amongst the GaaS kings now.

But PlayStation does need Multiplayer games

 

[Etifilio]

The GaaS was necessary, how they went about executing it was stupid since they should have never had traditional single player studios touching GaaS. Their GaaS strategy simply should have started in 2013... Which is kinda crazy to think about since they killed off all their Multiplayer studies between 2010 - 2012... Had they not done this and brought over some PS3 multiplayers they'd definitely be amongst the GaaS kings now.

But PlayStation does need Multiplayer games

i agree that GAAs was necessary, but not 12 titles like they were aiming to do til FY25, this is actually insane if you think about it, too much investment without even knowing if one of them will payout, truth is, Helldivers 2 success barely pays for the cancelled GAAs projects they had, let alone for the Bungie acquisition, PS3 generation had the perfect balance between multiplayer/singleplayer and even GAAs like PlayStation Home

 

[BillyZ]

I disagree. Sony never worked with Remedy for example but any doubts that it would be a good acquisition? The problem with studios like Firewalk and Haven is that not only they never worked together before but they're also a bunch of unproven nobodies.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

oh, Concord is certaintly bringing lots of rewards to Sony

Oh wow, I never thought of that. A GAAS game failing now makes me reconsider the entire trend of GAAS dominance over the last 10 years...

 

[Etifilio]

I disagree. Sony never worked with Remedy for example but any doubts that it would be a good acquisition? The problem with studios like Firewalk and Haven is that not only they never worked together before but they're also a bunch of unproven nobodies.

they never properly worked with remedy, but the games remedy makes match perfectly, they could work a game before purchasing them, for example, Sony could purchase the license to Doctor Strange and make a Doctor Strange game with Remedy, they would nail it, they would be the next Insomniac.

 

[quest4441]

they never properly worked with remedy, but the games remedy does match perfectly, they could work a game before purchasing them, for example, Sony could purchase the license to Doctor Strange and make a Doctor Strange game with Remedy, they would nail it, they would be the next Insomniac.

Remedy making a hit game LMAO, nice one needed a laugh.

 

[Danja]

i agree that GAAs was necessary, but not 12 titles like they were aiming to do til FY25, this is actually insane if you think about it, too much investment without even knowing if one of them will payout, truth is, Helldivers 2 success barely pays for the cancelled GAAs projects they had, let alone for the Bungie acquisition, PS3 generation had the perfect balance between multiplayer/singleplayer and even GAAs like PlayStation Home

Jim Ryan himself said he never expected all the GaaS games to be hits, he said they greenlighted many in hopes 1 or 2 will hit it off big... They managed to get one with Helldivers 2 Arrowheads dumb CEO pretty much fucked that game over... Can they recover is another question.

Factions would have been a sure fire hit but that's a bust.

I'm still excited to see what they're other multiplayer offers will be personally as I've always believed Sony has made some of the best multiplayer games, they just never stick since they are shit at marketing them.

 

[Etifilio]

Oh wow, I never thought of that. A GAAS game failing now makes me reconsider the entire trend of GAAS dominance over the last 10 years...

not you pretending only Concord is failling in the GAAs space

 

[Etifilio]

Remedy making a hit game LMAO, nice one needed a laugh.

a hit game would grant the studio money to grow and make more games like Alan Wake and Control, just like Insomniac didn't stop to make Ratchet & Clank after using licensed Marvel IPs, contrary to that, Ratchet had the biggest investment ever in the franchise with Rift Apart.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

he knows, but marketing relationship doesn't translate to game development, Sony had no involvement in Destiny's development, they had no expertize on live service whatsoever and that was the reason the publisher was purchased in the first place, before bringing Bungie in, they should've made a strategic partnetship for a game, to test the waters and see if they would actually be able to deliver on the promise of a brand new successful GAAs game.

I think PlayStation has a deeper understanding of the inner workings of Bungie, by an order of magnitude, more than you realize.

Colin treats Bungie as some unknowable black box because the reality hurts his narrative. He's a doofus.