Playstation backed studio Deviation games hit with layoffs

[Dabaus]

Saw this on Reddit and wanted to share:
“It's also probably a coincidence but the fact that this kind of stuff is happening specifically after incidents like Suicide Squad's delay and Redfall's reception has me curious as to whether Sony is actively watching these games to inform what direction they take and specifically whether that'll inform how they approach GaaS if that's what the basis for a lot of the multiplayer projects are.”

I think redfall was a watershed moment for the development community as far as gaas goes. You can’t just put out an incomplete, messy, buggy project and expect reviews and influencers to carry it for you until you update years later anymore. Those days are over. Not saying deviation was making “red fall part 2” but maybe it was half effort game Sony thought they could initially pull a fast one with but decided against it?

 

[anonpuffs]

Saw this on Reddit and wanted to share:
“It's also probably a coincidence but the fact that this kind of stuff is happening specifically after incidents like Suicide Squad's delay and Redfall's reception has me curious as to whether Sony is actively watching these games to inform what direction they take and specifically whether that'll inform how they approach GaaS if that's what the basis for a lot of the multiplayer projects are.”

I think redfall was a watershed moment for the development community as far as gaas goes. You can’t just put out an incomplete, messy, buggy project and expect reviews and influencers to carry it for you until you update years later anymore. Those days are over. Not saying deviation was making “red fall part 2” but maybe it was half effort game Sony thought they could initially pull a fast one with but decided against it?

Redfall isn't even gaas, even though it started out as one.

Looks like it is not canceled???

MBG isn't an insider

 

[Yurinka]

Yep. Sony funded their development of a game for more than a 3 years. What they've achieved in those 3 years...who knows. Looks like Hulst didn't liked it ( just like in PixelOpus case )

Sony has been working with Deviation Games on its new PlayStation-exclusive IP for over a year already

Last week, Sony announced it had signed a deal with Deviation Games to make a brand new PlayStation IP - the second suc…

www.eurogamer.net

Hermen liked both games because he -and more people of his team- greenlighted both.

If they got cancelled it's because he -and more people of his team- considerted that the game was being too bad and couldn't be saved. They (like most companies) prefer to cancel a game than to release a turd.

Saw this on Reddit and wanted to share:
“It's also probably a coincidence but the fact that this kind of stuff is happening specifically after incidents like Suicide Squad's delay and Redfall's reception has me curious as to whether Sony is actively watching these games to inform what direction they take and specifically whether that'll inform how they approach GaaS if that's what the basis for a lot of the multiplayer projects are.”

I think redfall was a watershed moment for the development community as far as gaas goes. You can’t just put out an incomplete, messy, buggy project and expect reviews and influencers to carry it for you until you update years later anymore. Those days are over. Not saying deviation was making “red fall part 2” but maybe it was half effort game Sony thought they could initially pull a fast one with but decided against it?

Games being good or bad, or getting cancelled or not has nothing to do with being GaaS or not.

GaaS only means (but not always) having a sizable post launch support, which often (not always) is linked to related dlcs or microtransactions.

And well, Sony won't cancel a AAA game because MS released a turd or because WB delayed a game. Sony doesn't give a fuck about Redfall or Suicide Squad. Sony saw games like Fortnite, GTA Online, Apex Legends, Destiny, CoD, FIFA, Minecraft, Genshin Impact and a ton more being super succesful and they want their slice of the GaaS pie.

Yes, there are some GaaS that are unsuccessful, in the same way that some non-GaaS are also unsuccessful. But most of the most successful games nowadays are GaaS and they make way more money than the most successful non-GaaS.

 

[Zzero]

Saw this on Reddit and wanted to share:
“It's also probably a coincidence but the fact that this kind of stuff is happening specifically after incidents like Suicide Squad's delay and Redfall's reception has me curious as to whether Sony is actively watching these games to inform what direction they take and specifically whether that'll inform how they approach GaaS if that's what the basis for a lot of the multiplayer projects are.”

I think redfall was a watershed moment for the development community as far as gaas goes. You can’t just put out an incomplete, messy, buggy project and expect reviews and influencers to carry it for you until you update years later anymore. Those days are over. Not saying deviation was making “red fall part 2” but maybe it was half effort game Sony thought they could initially pull a fast one with but decided against it?

Take2 wrote off a GaaS that was deep in development at a central European location 2 or 3 years ago. Unofficially, I think it was a rssponse to Antem and Avengers failing. Those sorts of Fortnite/Destiny-clones had their heyday a few years ago already.

Its more like these current projects are late to the party where even if they have a "twist" (this one's tag, this one's rollerderby, this one's nonviolent, this one's hardcore) they still run up against audience size issues.

Hopefully you are right and broken launches stop being tolerated, but even without that, its still going to be tough.

 

[Yobo]

Sony has milestones and a very effective structure to get games to 80 MC and above

They missed the mark with essentially their first GAAS attempt in Destruction All Stars

Since then they've bought Bungie who have helped them set up the Live Service Centre of Excellence and also bought Haven and Firewalk. Hopefully having this management structure allows them the ability to effectively manage these projects

We've seen what happens when you don't. You get Redfall or Destruction All Stars embarassing everyone

While it sucks this game is canned it also gives me confidence the quality control is now in place and we can expect a high quality out of the coming GAAS games, and also that Haven and Firewalk are smashing through milestones for Sony to have proceeded to acquisition

Also gives me confidence we will get good GAAS games at launch, not betas or early access that get fixed and updated over two years like Xbox do

 

[nongkris]

projects get cancelled all the time, especially unannounced ones. This is a non news story of hermen hulst doing his job

 

[anonpuffs]

Sony has milestones and a very effective structure to get games to 80 MC and above

They missed the mark with essentially their first GAAS attempt in Destruction All Stars

Since then they've bought Bungie who have helped them set up the Live Service Centre of Excellence and also bought Haven and Firewalk. Hopefully having this management structure allows them the ability to effectively manage these projects

We've seen what happens when you don't. You get Redfall or Destruction All Stars embarassing everyone

While it sucks this game is canned it also gives me confidence the quality control is now in place and we can expect a high quality out of the coming GAAS games, and also that Haven and Firewalk are smashing through milestones for Sony to have proceeded to acquisition

Destruction Allstars seemed like a game that might have been decent as an early access game, it seemed very technically polished, just needed to launch with more content.

 

[nongkris]

Destruction Allstars seemed like a game that might have been decent as an early access game, it seemed very technically polished, just needed to launch with more content.

I think destruction all stars was fun, what I do think Sony needs to be careful of is just making pvp modes for their games. Destruction all stars could’ve used an open world battle royale mode, or maybe even added some pve elements.

Destiny has survived all these years because it’s mostly a pve gaas game, with story elements and missions

If a pvp gaas game has a low player base then it will never hit the critical mass needed to become popular, just because there’s no one to play against. cod,Fortnite,apex has the pvp industry on lock

 

[Zzero]

Destruction Allstars seemed like a game that might have been decent as an early access game, it seemed very technically polished, just needed to launch with more content.

Even if DAS was polished, I still think it would have struggled. Just no audience for the concept and as a live service it needed to maintain a player count so an uphill struggle to even cult status awaited it.

 

[Yobo]

Even if DAS was polished, I still think it would have struggled. Just no audience for the concept and as a live service it needed to maintain a player count so an uphill struggle to even cult status awaited it.

Concept is fine. But Rocket League has a strangle hold on the concept of car based multiplayer. Every game in that niche will be compared and come up short due to the mechanical depth of Rocket League

 

[MaxParrish]

That's what I was thinking... I didn't think they were much bigger than 100-150.

So, is this basically them on the way to a full closure? It feels like it..

I don't think necessarily going toward full closure, but this probably mean that the game that they had in project for Sony is totally cancelled and the studio need to start from zero on a new project. So, for the next 2 year , while they test new ideas, most of the crew is unnecessary and they are unable to keep them employed. If a new project capable to attract investors don' t emerge in those couple of years then I think that closure could be a serious possibility. Obviously all of this are just conjecture from my part, I have no idea what in reality is going on with DG

 

[anonpuffs]

Even if DAS was polished, I still think it would have struggled. Just no audience for the concept and as a live service it needed to maintain a player count so an uphill struggle to even cult status awaited it.

I wouldn't say no audience for the concept. The thing is all live service games have multiple modes now. For example Genshin has survived and thrived for a long time not just because it's got a massive open world and frequent main story updates, but because (imo) they have a ton of minigames that are all kind of shitty but provide enough variety in the game that people still stick around. There are plenty of anime waifu collectors that are nowhere near as big despite having better character designs, more generous gacha, etc.

There's stuff to do when people are just fucking around. Every gaas needs this imo, it can't be all core gameplay all the time. A successful gaas is one where people can hang out and chill and do meaningless shit. That's why mmos like wow and ff14 are still around. When I co-op in genshin 75% of players haven't unlocked like 2/3 of the map, there are unclaimed chests everywhere even within easy reach of the co-op points.

 

[Zzero]

Concept is fine. But Rocket League has a strangle hold on the concept of car based multiplayer. Every game in that niche will be compared and come up short due to the mechanical depth of Rocket League

Plenty of racing games are out there. That has as much to do with DAS as Rocket League did (it really has way more in common with arcadey soccer than with destruction derby.) But even if the game was well balanced I just don't think it was ever going to pull mindshare with the generic characters and artstyle. And it was launched at full price instead of f2p, limiting the audience even more.

 

[anonpuffs]

Plenty of racing games are out there. That has as much to do with DAS as Rocket League did (it really has way more in common with arcadey soccer than with destruction derby.) But even if the game was well balanced I just don't think it was ever going to pull mindshare with the generic characters and artstyle. And it was launched at full price instead of f2p, limiting the audience even more.

It wasn't launched at full price. It was day1 ps+ and didn't go on sale until months later, at $20

 

[Ludwig]

So the game is either cancelled or rebooted completely. We will know about it shortly I think.

 

[Zzero]

It wasn't launched at full price. It was day1 ps+ and didn't go on sale until months later, at $20

Yeah, you're right, Sony had initially announced it as a full priced launch title (imagine paying 70 dollars for that, lol) but eventually delayed it for months, put it up free on PS+ for "early access" and then sold it for 19.99. And all of that still didn't help it! Though it also wouldn't have all been necessary either if the quality was there, especially the part about it missing launch.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Shuhei don't fuck around.He cancelled the Santa Monica space game.It's bad enough Shu don't like your game. Imagine the PS committee.
You really got to pitch games that PS don't have. A game with art style fresh take , great mechanics , technical ability. And today's market , todays PS. You better build something high quality quickly. Like 1 year quick.

It sucks I wanted a roll out of shooters. Hope the devs get moved to other studios.This also a warning message to the industry and the PS studio guys. Get to work & deliver high quality projects or you are out. No coasting over here.

I wonder if we will see a leak of this or have we already??

Wait, what? Are you actually sure about this? That was Cory Balrog's main project after GOW 2018 correct? There is no way they actually cancelled it so I think you have heard misinformation on that one.

I'm gonna need some actual confirmation on this because if that's the case....alongside the PixelOpus game possibly being cancelled, I'm not really sure how much I would be looking forward to the rest of PS's marquee AAA lineup if it's just going to be more sequels tbh.

 

[anonpuffs]

Wait, what? Are you actually sure about this? That was Cory Balrog's main project after GOW 2018 correct? There is no way they actually cancelled it so I think you have heard misinformation on that one.

I'm gonna need some actual confirmation on this because if that's the case....alongside the PixelOpus game possibly being cancelled, I'm not really sure how much I would be looking forward to the rest of PS's marquee AAA lineup if it's just going to be more sequels tbh.

I think he's mistaken, Shu cancelled Stig's game back in like 2016

 

[Kokoloko]

Shuhei don't fuck around.He cancelled the Santa Monica space game.It's bad enough Shu don't like your game. Imagine the PS committee.
You really got to pitch games that PS don't have. A game with art style fresh take , great mechanics , technical ability. And today's market , todays PS. You better build something high quality quickly. Like 1 year quick.

Shuhei didnt believe in Demons Souls. I dont know why people give too much credit to people who work in the industry and say stuff like “ but you dont work in the industry, these guys are experts and paid“

Sometimes gamers know better than top heads simple

 

[Kokoloko]

When Blundell left last year I didnt think it was good news. People brushed it off and made excuses.
Making that Call of Duty killer is gonna be harder than they thought.

We’ll probably hear it will be cancelled soon