Kena Bridge of Spirits massive update + Steam announcement

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Sony blocking that game from Xbox:

I don't think helping with funding development counts as "blocking". You guys really need to read over some of the details from earlier this year WRT MS and them passing on multiple opportunities in the past to help co-fund games that could've been theirs.

Surprising as it may seem the 3P exclusivity deals on Sony's end aren't as simple as just paying to keep a game off other consoles :/

Anyhow tho on topic, I'm happy to see this IP is getting further support, it has a lot of potential. Someone linked a LinkedIn posting of the studio's basically admitting they have a new game in development, I'd like to see more of that in the near future.

I'd hold your horses on the idea Kena got Sony to lock down Ember Lab until we actually know how well it did financially. All we have is someone from the company saying basically "Uh hard to tell if it did well but Sony is happy."

They marketed the hell out of it so if it didn't sell great, not so sure Sony wants to turn around and fund another game or buy a studio like that.

Not all of their acquisitions have to revolve around total game sold, especially if it's from an upstart developer who otherwise shows lots of promise, has a lot of talent on their team, and have proven they can deliver quality results. Ember Labs isn't a publisher, so the cost to acquire them would be much cheaper regardless, and I doubt they have much if any outstanding debt.

I mean if you look at some of Sony's other acquisitions they are studios like Housemarque who haven't had a massive hit sales-wise prior to purchase, but delivered a high-quality product and show a lot of potential. They're expanding Team Asobi and while I'm not sure how many copies Astrobot sold, Astro's PlayRoom is literally a free game so sales could not be a metric behind deciding to expand them.

Honestly I wouldn't take Kena's sales as a major factor into if a company decided they wanted to acquire them or not.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Not all of their acquisitions have to revolve around total game sold, especially if it's from an upstart developer who otherwise shows lots of promise, has a lot of talent on their team, and have proven they can deliver quality results. Ember Labs isn't a publisher, so the cost to acquire them would be much cheaper regardless, and I doubt they have much if any outstanding debt.

My hesitation is what we heard about the development of the core game itself; outside of the animation aspect it allegedly was coded by a guy who left disgruntled.

But sure.. buy out the creatives I guess and probably on the cheap.. but I still dont think 1 game makes some guys who did animation and multi-media "apps" some proven go-to company. I get that it can add diversity.. but we still don't know much about the company itself.

Also...

Spoiler

It's generic as all hell, sorry.. just my opinion. We'd have never heard of the game if it wasn't for Sony

 

[Remember_Spinal]

My hesitation is what we heard about the development of the core game itself; outside of the animation aspect it allegedly was coded by a guy who left disgruntled.

But sure.. buy out the creatives I guess and probably on the cheap.. but I still dont think 1 game makes some guys who did animation and multi-media "apps" some proven go-to company. I get that it can add diversity.. but we still don't know much about the company itself.

Also...

Spoiler

It's generic as all hell, sorry.. just my opinion. We'd have never heard of the game if it wasn't for Sony

You’re just arguing to argue at this point.

 

[Umar]

Similar treatment as Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Launches as a PlayStation game. Launches on Steam a year later. No Xbox ports.

Sony wants Kena as a permanent exclusive. It means they are either acquiring Ember Labs or have already hired the studio to work on an exclusive PlayStation Studios IP.

Came out on steam 2 years and 2 months later actually

 

[DynamiteCop]

Kena: Bridge of Spirits Xbox Release Possible - Game Rant​

It can't even be announced either until that period ends.

 

[adamsapple]

It can't even be announced either until that period ends.

Exactly. Same reason why MS and Bethesda aren't announcing Deathloop even though everyone knows it will come to Xbox sooner or later.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Copiumfrog.jpeg

Am i doing it right?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

My hesitation is what we heard about the development of the core game itself; outside of the animation aspect it allegedly was coded by a guy who left disgruntled.

But sure.. buy out the creatives I guess and probably on the cheap.. but I still dont think 1 game makes some guys who did animation and multi-media "apps" some proven go-to company. I get that it can add diversity.. but we still don't know much about the company itself.

Also...

Spoiler

It's generic as all hell, sorry.. just my opinion. We'd have never heard of the game if it wasn't for Sony

Sorry the game wasn't your cup of tea; it seems really interesting to me and I'd be down to play it later on (but my pick-up priorities for the rest of the year are mainly GOW Ragnarok, GT7 & Elden Ring software-wise; Dreams too because I've been itching to try making some stuff).

Beside that though, I doubt the whole game was coded by a single person, AA games of that scale usually require a decent number of people to work on them, maybe the guy you're referring to just coded a specific part of the game? But even supposing that, there's still quite a lot of talent with who's there, and they technically have a game under their belt that was well-received.

PS needs more family-friendly content and Ember Labs can provide that in a Western sense the way Team Asobi can in the Eastern sense.

Exactly. Same reason why MS and Bethesda aren't announcing Deathloop even though everyone knows it will come to Xbox sooner or later.

What makes you think there's even an Xbox version currently in development? I get that it's possible, but there's been nothing leaked to confirm it, and there's no telling how long it will remain exclusive.

Deathloop is a different deal because Zenimax teams have usually been multiplat, and they got purchased by Microsoft so even if there were no Xbox versions in dev beforehand, you better bet MS would have them make Xbox versions after being purchased!

 

[adamsapple]

What makes you think there's even an Xbox version currently in development? I get that it's possible, but there's been nothing leaked to confirm it, and there's no telling how long it will remain exclusive.

Deathloop is a different deal because Zenimax teams have usually been multiplat, and they got purchased by Microsoft so even if there were no Xbox versions in dev beforehand, you better bet MS would have them make Xbox versions after being purchased!

The post was in reference to why there hasn't been an announcement so far, because they literally can't market another console version until a timed term as per their own statements they can't talk about anything else at the moment, conventional wisdom states it would be 1 year, but it could very well be more, like Forspoken's 2 years.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

The post was in reference to why there hasn't been an announcement so far, because they literally can't market another console version until a timed term as per their own statements they can't talk about anything else at the moment, conventional wisdom states it would be 1 year, but it could very well be more, like Forspoken's 2 years.

Those exclusivity dates are merely suggestive, none of it garuantees a game will get ported to another platform when the deal ends, outside the typical steam epic stuff (cause the pc version already exists) just like it didn’t matter with final fantasy.

If sony values the IP they can extend it or the dev can simply choose to not waste the resources to port. Ember Lab seems pretty tight with Sony and they’ve already started on their next game as of last spring so I wouldn’t doubt they would just move on even if sony aren’t pressing them.

 

[adamsapple]

Those exclusivity dates are merely suggestive, none of it garuantees a game will get ported to another platform when the deal ends, outside the typical steam epic stuff (cause the pc version already exists) just like it didn’t matter with final fantasy.

If sony values the IP they can extend it or the dev can simply choose to not waste the resources to port. Ember Lab seems pretty tight with Sony and they’ve already started on their next game as of last spring so I wouldn’t doubt they would just move on even if sony aren’t pressing them.

Of course anything is possible, but as of right now Ember Lab is a third party studio and Kena was a self published game. On paper there is nothing stopping the game from coming to other platforms once the timed term ends, unless there have been deals that haven't been made public.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Of course anything is possible, but as of right now Ember Lab is a third party studio and Kena was a self published game. On paper there is nothing stopping the game from coming to other platforms once the timed term ends, unless there have been deals that haven't been made public.

Evidence suggest that sony did invest some extra money or resources into the development of the game. For example, White Moon Studios that primarily works on playstation exclusive games (aside from warhammer) also worked on Kena

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[IntentionalPun]

Sorry the game wasn't your cup of tea; it seems really interesting to me and I'd be down to play it later on (but my pick-up priorities for the rest of the year are mainly GOW Ragnarok, GT7 & Elden Ring software-wise; Dreams too because I've been itching to try making some stuff).

I just mean the art and whatnot that people raved about. Was generic to me.

That is really it's main claim to fame... other than that just a simple/fun game that wasn't remarkable really.

 

[adamsapple]

Btw, if anyone wants to play, the PC version has a mod that interpolates the many video files to 48 FPS instead of the 24 FPS they're locked at. It's a bit of a jarring shift when the 60 fps game output suddenly drops to 24hz, not even 30, during cut-scenes.

That's how I played on PC last year.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

If this is generic sign me up for more unremarkable bland looking games lol

 

[Shmunter]

I just mean the art and whatnot that people raved about. Was generic to me.

That is really it's main claim to fame... other than that just a simple/fun game that wasn't remarkable really.

Agree, it looks beautiful- although needed to go further on next gen with foliage interaction etc.

Apart from that it’s strictly unremarkable.

 

[peter42O]

Excluding the difficulty spike during the last segment of the game, I loved Kena. A great 8.5/10 for me. Hoping Sony acquires Ember Lab!!! Was hoping for an expansion instead though.

 

[Heisenberg007]

The post was in reference to why there hasn't been an announcement so far, because they literally can't market another console version until a timed term as per their own statements they can't talk about anything else at the moment, conventional wisdom states it would be 1 year, but it could very well be more, like Forspoken's 2 years.

1. That's not always the case. For example, Tunic has been announced and is being promoted as an upcoming PlayStation game. It releases after the exclusivity period ends in September.

2. The Gamerant article you shared above is from 2021, and even that was just guessing an Xbox release. Things must have changed since then.