The output has not been the same. Having different directors helped create multiple games at the same time.
They were making multiple games, last gen, and before at the same time. Bloodborne, Last Guardian, Gravity Rush 2 and the smaller games. Its better to have more games, than all in one studio that hasnt actually produced anything this gen. They can do AA games and its not like Astrobot is AAA.
As I mentioned, while they were working on the recent Astro other teams were working on internally developed games that got cancelled, mostly mobile games. After that there was covid released Death Stranding (2019), Astro (2020) and got restructured (2021).
After that they released Death Stranding Director's Cut (2021) and announced Rise of the Ronin (2024), Stellar Blade (2024), Convallaria (2024) and Lost Soul Aside (2024), Death Stranding 2 (2025). The next interally developed game is supposed to be bigger than the Astro games and could be released this (or more likely) next year, but I bet won't be as big as Gravity Rush 2.
The smaller weird indie Japanese games that in the past were 2nd party, now are supported by PlayStation Indies with Yoshida since he moved there to handle it, as is the case of Humanity, Eternights or Pixeljunk Eden 2.
Who’s decision was it for them to work on different mobile games. A blunder for sure. Hermen? Jim? Whoever it is, its a mistake because nothing has come from it.
Who’s putting them in charge of mobile games and stuff in the first place?
No, these mobile games were in development since before 2019.
Not sure who greenlighted them becase I don't know exactly when they started, but before 2019 Shuhei Yoshida was in charge of PS Studios/Worldwide Studios (with also Shawn Layden as chairman during almost a couple years). As Jimbo predecessors, John Kodera in charge of SIE during a couple years and Andrew House before him.
Inside Japan Studio, I assume who decided their developments was their VP of Business Development, who later became "VP of Mobile Business", Mena Sato Kato. If someone becomes VP of something is because that is important for the company, meaning they were working on them for a while. Jimbo and Hermen fired her and cancelled any mobile gaming plans at Japan Studio.
She now works as director of partnerships in Japan for MS gaming, achieving a total of zero known partnerships since July.
Hermen and Jim were the ones who cancelled the mobile games and restructured the studio to put them make only console games.
TBH, Im not sure even if Asobi is making it. Maybe Asobi is working on something else? I cant talk about it lol.
I love Astrobot and the work the team did, but they just need to make games. Adding humour shouldnt take them longer and they need to focus on console games, not mobile or researching prototypes, nothing comes from these tech things. Look at london studios that has been working on smaller tech things since EyeToy, Vr etc, kicked to the curb.
They said Team Asobi moved to a new office of the same SIE Japan HQ building where they were and where they are growing. They said to be working on a 3D action platformer with humor bigger than the Astro games, in addition to multiple prototypes experimenting with current and future hardware that may end on being games or part of games.
Its gonna be 4 years in 6 months.
Astro's Playroom was released 12 November 2020.
We are in March 2024, which is 3 years and 4 months later.
4 year and 6 months later would be May 2025.
I dont know, I consider SOTN decent selling, it got a platinum and probably sold over 1million at least. And was amazing game, reviewed better than 90% of games. ICO also reviewed well. Both scoring above 91 on reviews.
Id rather have Ico and SOTN over something that sold millions like Days Gone.
Yes Days Gone sold huge amounts but I think the market has changed for PS games. Days Gone sold more than God of War use to, doesnt mean its a better hit.
Outside of Gran Turismo, nothing sold close to 10million in the old days. God of War and Jak and Daxter had similar numbers 4 million, and look at what God of War does now. All Sony games are selling close to and above 10million now.
I assume you mean SotC (Shadow of the Colossus) instead of SOTN (Castlavania Symphony of the Night).
Days Gone sold around 9M so far, which is great sales and a big success. In 30 years Japan Studio released dozens of internally developed games and none of them got even close to half of it.
Their internally developed dev teams got merged into the most successful of these teams, Team Asobi.
Same goes with their 2nd party games with the exceptions of Bloodborne, who started with low sales but ended selling 7.46M as of last week of February 2022 according to the leaked Insomniac document and Death Stranding (I think was 6M). Other than these two they never had a sales hit in 30 years.
Hermen and Jim gave their 2nd party team their own office where to grow and also handle games developed in the rest of Asia. Plus signed with Kojima Death Stranding 2 and Physint.
They also invested on FromSoftware and signed a deal with their owners Kadokawa to help them bring their games and animes to the global market, a deal where in exchange Sony got 2% of Kadokawa.
Titles like Parapper, Everybodys Golf, Dark Cloud, Wild Arms, Ico, Gravity Rush were all good games. They deserve more
Yes, they and others like Puppeteer, Locoroco or Patapon were good and deserved more but didn't sell a shit.