Pixelopus is Shutting Down [Confirmed]

[Yurinka]

So, how many game making studios does PlayStation have now?

Depend how do you count them, you could say 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30 or 31.

For the lead teams 18 or 24 studios (some of them having multiple teams inside, and 17 or 23 if not counting Savage because they make mobile games) plus 6 or 7 support studios.

You also have to consider That several of these studios are working on multiple games at the same time (at least Insomniac, Bungie, ND, SSM, Firesprite, Guerrilla). Sony may have around 30 games under development not counting 2nd party games or support for already released games.

1. Bend
2. Bluepoint
3. Bungie (2 studios : Bellevue, USA and Amsterdam, Netherlands)
4. Firesprite (also includes a 2nd studio, Fabrik)
5. Firewalk
6. Guerrilla
7. Haven
8. Housemarque
9. Insomniac (2 studios: Burbank, Durham)
10. London Studio
11. Media Molecule
12. Naughty Dog
13. Polyphony (4 studios: 2 in Japan, 1 in USA, 1 in Netherlands)
14. San Diego Studio
15. Santa Monica Studio
16. Savage
17. Sucker Punch
18. Team Asobi

Support teams:

1. Nixxes (PC ports)
2. San Mateo (tech, OS, cloud, emulation, etc.)
3. Valkyrie Entertainment (gamedev outsourcing)
4. Creative Arts Services Group / Visual Arts Services Group (2 studios: San Diego and Malaysia)
5. XDEV Asian office (previously part of Japan Studio)
6. XDEV European office (previously part of Liverpool Studio)

Closes Japan Studios and now this.

I hope so. But I didnt like the way Japan Studios was “rebranded” more like mostly killed off

So according to you Team Asobi and their Japanese XDEV team that publishes Death Stranding Director's Cut, Death Stranding 2, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin and the other 2nd party Japanese teams don't exist.

Is Team Gravity still with PS?

Japan Studio had two parts: one dedicated to internal game development and other one dedicated to publishing of 2nd party games.

The part about internal development developed multiple games at the same time, and sometimes they did use names for the team that made that game or series. But the people from these teams were rotating and working in the games that were needed. There are people who worked in let's say The Last Guardian, Gravity Rush, Knack and Astro. These teams weren't separted teams.

With the restructuring, all these smallish internal development teams were merged into one of them: Team Asobi (except a few devs that may have went to their Asian XDEV office to support Asian 2nd party games). Btw Team Asobi, before the restructuring, in the staff of Astro games already had people who previously had been in games like TLG, GR series, Knack, etc.

But as happens in every studio some people left and other people got fired over years and also in the restructuring after decades of unsuccessful games, including Team Gravity staff. Now both Team Asobi and their Asian XDEV team are hiring and growing.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

really nothing to do with them, the momentum from PS4 was gonna happen anwway)

Cause that worked out well from the PS2 generation? Lol

I'm only aware of 1 or 2 first party horror games that Sony are funding.

Firesprites game
Ballistic Moon studios
Stanley parable teams game (https://www.gamesradar.com/former-stanley-parable-devs-are-making-a-ps5-horror-game/)

Also they are funding/marketing Silent Hill 2

 

[AshHunter216]

Cause that worked out well from the PS2 generation? Lol



Firesprites game
Ballistic Moon studios
Stanley parable teams game (https://www.gamesradar.com/former-stanley-parable-devs-are-making-a-ps5-horror-game/)

Also they are funding/marketing Silent Hill 2

I actually like horror so I have no problem with them funding that genre, lol. I wish they would try for a first party jrpg as well

 

[Kokoloko]

Cause that worked out well from the PS2 generation? Lol

Well with the PS3 they launched a console waaay too expensive, a year later than Xbox, hard to develop games for, and lost a bunch of PS centric gams to Xbox 360 for the first time like DMC, FF and Tekken.

Not saying Jim hasnt done some good like House Marque, Bluepoint, Bungie, PS Plus. But the games we’ve had so far were all in development before him and Herman were in charge.

The choices they made with Japan Studios and now Pixel arent good. We need smaller games and more variety. Im not an xbox fanboy who praises there leader no matter what.
I loved Team Gravity, games like LocoRoco, Tokyo Jungle, Concrete Genie. They should also bring back Ueda, he makes some masterpieces etc

 

[Remember_Spinal]

The choices they made with Japan Studios and now Pixel arent good.

Most of sonys critical and commercial failures are from those two studios

Sony is in the business to make money, they either need to pull their weight in being critically well received like Returnal or Astrobot or they need to sell a shit load of copies, even if they aren’t GOTY nominees

Pixelopus was a cute experiment but they have been active for 10 years and haven’t produced either of the above.

You guys want sony to maintain their high quality reputation? This is what happens, they have to trim the fat. The parts they spared from Japan Studio are the productive and well received parts.

This is the price of greatness. I’m sure all those people can get jobs inside of SIE

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Also, how many people in this thread, which is a forum for mostly playstation fans actually bought their last game? I liked concrete genie but not only did i not buy it but I begrudgingly just played it like last year on ps plus. I barely even acknowledged its existence before then and im sure its like that with most people

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Also, how many people in this thread, which is a forum for mostly playstation fans actually bought their last game? I liked concrete genie but not only did i not buy it but I begrudgingly just played it like last year on ps plus. I barely even acknowledged its existence before then and im sure its like that with most people

I'm turning on my PS5 as we speak to see if it's in my library. I feel sorry for them.

 

[Yobo]

That's a shame but I forgot they even existed until this thread

 

[anonpuffs]

Also, how many people in this thread, which is a forum for mostly playstation fans actually bought their last game? I liked concrete genie but not only did i not buy it but I begrudgingly just played it like last year on ps plus. I barely even acknowledged its existence before then and im sure its like that with most people

I played it on ps+ too. I appreciated its unique flavor but sadly the game wasn't really for me.

 

[Kokoloko]

Most of sonys critical and commercial failures are from those two studios

Sony is in the business to make money, they either need to pull their weight in being critically well received like Returnal or Astrobot or they need to sell a shit load of copies, even if they aren’t GOTY nominees

Pixelopus was a cute experiment but they have been active for 10 years and haven’t produced either of the above.

You guys want sony to maintain their high quality reputation? This is what happens, they have to trim the fat. The parts they spared from Japan Studio are the productive and well received parts.

I dont know, Ueda gave some of Playstations best tiles like Shadow of the Collosus, Ico. Some of the keys guys making Bloodborne are gone.

Japan studios produced Ape Escape, Gravity Rush, Locoroco. They helped filled the PS3 catalogue when days were bad. These games dont cost that much, so they dont need to sell 10+ titles.
Outside of GT, GOW and ND games, Playstation wasn’t selling millions and millions like it is doing now with 1st party titles.

I want them to maintain high quality but I also want space for smaller titles And different genres.

If anyone should get the sack its Bend for taking so long to make Days Gone and the quality just not being close to what the other 1st party developers are doing. Gravity Rush, Last Guardian, LocoRock, SOTC all reviewed better than Days Gone and probably cost way less to make.

Bloodborne didnt sell like Horizon, Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima or Spiderman etc. But it was amazing and reviewed well. Better than them all in my opinion. Not everything has to be about huge sales. That can be a mistake just like Xbox made with Halo, Gears and Forza

We don‘t just need AAA big budget titles as much as I love them, smaller games are great too.

This is the price of greatness. I’m sure all those people can get jobs inside of SIE

I hope so, I guess Evolution members are still around. Another team that didnt deserve the sack

 

[nongkris]

You guys are still stuck on Japan studios “closure” years later? If all those veterans there had actually released anything worthwhile they would’ve been saved, instead they released Knack and let team asobo release astrobot and make a better game than they’ve done in years!

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Japan studios produced Ape Escape, Gravity Rush, Locoroco. They helped filled the PS3 catalogue when days were bad. These games dont cost that much, so they dont need to sell 10+ titles.
Outside of GT, GOW and ND games, Playstation wasn’t selling millions and millions like it is doing now with 1st party titles.

Those Ueda games are nice and all but outside of internet chatter who’s really buying them? They take YEARS to make, to the point where the last game had to be finished without the lead, and to this day Ueda still has not even shown his new game. He left Japan Studios long before its closure.

By the time Sony closed Japan studio it was running as a support studio, basically what XDev is doing in Japan now. They put out non-stop commercial and critical duds last gen, and most people that constantly bring the up didn’t pay for any of them brand new. They only get brought up when people whine about the AAA games they always run out and buy from Sony.

The Sony of early and mid ps3 and psp era would be on its last legs right now if all they aspired for was creative and quirky games to satisfy like the 15% of people that care.

If sony wasn’t producing games like Last of Us, God of War, Tsushima, etc. there would be a MAJOR hole in the AAA space for those type of games. Not everyone can make the type of big projects sony does, but there are tons of indie studios that can make better games than pixel opus that sony can sponsor and market.

They just haven’t proven to be a very valuable studio, i hate to say that cause i did want to see if they could grow into something more but the people at sony know better than us and they saw what they had done and it wasn’t it.

I have faith that the people at SIE know what they’re doing by this point.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

also, i could understand if PixelOpus was some sort of AA machine, just churning out games like concrete genie every 2 years, but them taking 4 years to put out another game is naughty dog levels of development time. There is not a major sony studio taking that long inbetween releases to put out games.

Sony is probably getting fed up of these smaller studios just not pulling their weight making much smaller lower budget games while their big studies have to be relied on to carry the line up.

I would honestly be sid eyeing the hell out of Bend right now also but they have a much longer and richer history with playstation. Thats the biggest difference between pixelopus and some other studios, they don’t have seniority or critical acclaim to save them.

 

[Yobo]

Japan Studios were only worthwhile for Ueda

Without Ueda they were running on fumes

Like Konami without Kojima

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Japan Studios were only worthwhile for Ueda

Without Ueda they were running on fumes

Like Konami without Kojima

And Team Asobi

 

[kyliethicc]

Also, how many people in this thread, which is a forum for mostly playstation fans actually bought their last game? I liked concrete genie but not only did i not buy it but I begrudgingly just played it like last year on ps plus. I barely even acknowledged its existence before then and im sure its like that with most people

zero

 

[kyliethicc]

Japan Studios were only worthwhile for Ueda

Without Ueda they were running on fumes

Like Konami without Kojima

i disagree

once ueda left we got knack 2

 

[Yobo]

i disagree

once ueda left we got knack 2

Knack 2 could be made anywhere that the genius of Mark Cerny stops by

 

[Yobo]

And Team Asobi

They are their own thing as far as I'm concerned like Polyphony

 

[Remember_Spinal]

They are their own thing as far as I'm concerned like Polyphony

They were a division of Japan Studio just like Team Ico, they could have easily got phased out with the rest of the studio but sony liked what they produced and how quickly they were ably to do it.