Rumor/Assumptions, Firesprite-Sony first party studio is collapsing.

[Dabaus]

PlayStation Studios |OT38| I have nothing left, except Spider-Man. Sony - OT

Just the current state of Firesprite according to what you can read online. You can hear stuff like: - Management/leadership since Sony took over is awful. The last shipped project (Horizon VR?) was a nightmare to work with. - The Sony acquisition has negatively impacted many departments. Since...

www.resetera.com

"Just the current state of Firesprite according to what you can read online. You can hear stuff like:
- Management/leadership since Sony took over is awful. The last shipped project (Horizon VR?) was a nightmare to work with.
- The Sony acquisition has negatively impacted many departments. Since the acquisition they have lost over 100 employees and had Firesprite culture dismantled piece by piece. Sony implemented a hiring pause that put pressure on several teams and caused many staff to have complete burnout.
- Founders jumped ship after they got their golden parachutes (after the Firesprite and Fabrik Games acquisition).
- People are afraid to even give input on their own work and disappear if they challenge the new studio heads.
- Understaffed projects that are often poorly managed.
- Projects in development hell.
- Chaotic production on almost every project. Resulting in wasted time and people running around like headless chickens crunching to get stuff in last minute. Lack of clear direction in many projects. Too many leads/directors (especially after the Sony acquisition). They bite off more than they can chew resulting in cancelled projects. All projects are understaffed resulting on a lot of people getting moved from project to project.
- Management and many employees have limited experience with Unreal Engine and a certain project is suffering as a result. Unlikely to ship.

Remember Pete Ellis? The former Naughty Dog dev who went to Firesprite to work as a game director for their narrative-driven horror game? He left this month.
The same goes for the lead designer who worked on Horizon Call of the Mountain. Gone.

Over 100 developers left since Sony bought them, game development is chaotic and projects are getting canceled. The Sony acquisition has had a negative impact on the culture and leadership. Before the acquisition there were pretty much only positive reviews on Glassdoor.
Doesn't sound good."

 

[MiyazakiLovesKojima]

Bullshit rumors.

I will never trust ReetardEra "sources" & "anonymous" Glassdoor reviews that are screenshots with no links

It smells like an AndreaPichini/Xbot smear campaign to me.

 

[Playstation Sucka]

Man Sony doesn't gets well with UK based studios they have a turbulent history with the region

 

[Johnic]

At this point, it feels like an astroturfing campaign. I expect many more of these "trust me bro" rumors.

 

[Satoru]

If this was Xbox: Phil Spencer had got the mierdas touch
Since this is PlayStation: baseless rumours, when there's a lot of smoke there's not necessarily fire, this is all great, the lack of games is bullshit.

 

[Luffy123]

You know how obvious this is an astroturfing campaign when you have a big Sony exclusive release come out and you start hearing all these “stories”

Same thing happened with Ragnarok last year. Same thing happened with FF16 and Forbidden West

 

[MiyazakiLovesKojima]

If this was Xbox: Phil Spencer had got the mierdas touch
Since this is PlayStation: baseless rumours, when there's a lot of smoke there's not necessarily fire, this is all great, the lack of games is bullshit.

Firesprite just released the best PSVR2 game this year.

Yes, these false-narrative smear campaigns are increasing.

We need to be more critical about information that we get.

Let's not pretend that Xbots were tweeting 100's of tweets a DAY to smear Spider-Man 2 since they believe this helps Xbox.

Xbox is a company brand that brought toxic fan evangelism.

PlayStation fans NEVER did these types of smear campaigns since they were confident & satisfied with their ecosystem.

Xbots are frustrated for many years so they resort to toxicity.

 

[Box]

Bullshit rumors.

I will never trust ReetardEra "sources" & "anonymous" Glassdoor reviews that are screenshots with no links

It smells like an AndreaPichini/Xbot smear campaign to me.

It is a weird coincidence that suddenly Sony is having these supposed mass layoffs.

This all comes right after Spiderman 2 breakes records.

 

[voke]

This is public information? Disaster if true sony paid quite big for them

 

[flaccidsnake]

Firesprite is set up to be Sony's reliable VR developer. PSVR has basically taken the place of PSP/Vita, and Firesprite is a Sony Bend type team who can make the Uncharted Golden Abyss type game while the prestige team works on mainline Playstation.

Until proven otherwise, I wouldn't expect anything else.

 

[Entropi]

It sounds like made-up BS to ride the wave of the Bungie bad news.

 

[MiyazakiLovesKojima]

It is a weird coincidence that suddenly Sony is having these supposed mass layoffs.

I'm started to notice these smear campaigns are being condoned by Xbox management or at least being handwaved.

They may see it beneficial to poach/hire potential talent too.

Information Corporate Warfare is REAL & can be nasty to see.

 

[Luffy123]

everything we’ve seen in the last few days and weeks is a campaign to try and push news about how this live service campaign is not working and how they’ll reverse course

It’s literally impossible for anyone to know if this is true or not, simply because none of the fucking products have even launched yet

Just like the news about how they’re using 3rd parties to diversify the portfolio screams narrative lies and pandering

 

[Gods&Monsters]

What were they working on anyway? Horizon VR was good.

I agree there is a big smear campaign going on but Sony is used to it. It's practically every week this gen

 

[AshHunter216]

Do people ever get tired of looking for stuff on social media to post here and have meltdowns over?

 

[AllBizness]

Total bullshit

 

[gokuss4]

Ps5 will break records this holiday season
And they will buy major studio soon
That's why ms are using the ai bots to spread fake news
Cuz they want to district people from starfield failures and Xbox bad sells
Ms and their Ai army must realize by now that these campaigns are not working in the real world

 

[Playstation Sucka]

Ps5 will break records this holiday season
And they will buy major studio soon
That's why ms are using the ai bots to spread fake news
Cuz they want to district people from starfield failures and Xbox bad sells
Ms and their Ai army must realize by now that these campaigns are not working in the real world

 

[Remember_Spinal]

You can put a clock next to the FUD articles and threads that come out after a big playstation exclusive launches at this point lol

The mods still allows obvious trolls with xbox avatars to degrade the forum though

 

[shrike0fth0rns]

PlayStation Studios |OT38| I have nothing left, except Spider-Man. Sony - OT

Just the current state of Firesprite according to what you can read online. You can hear stuff like: - Management/leadership since Sony took over is awful. The last shipped project (Horizon VR?) was a nightmare to work with. - The Sony acquisition has negatively impacted many departments. Since...

www.resetera.com

"Just the current state of Firesprite according to what you can read online. You can hear stuff like:
- Management/leadership since Sony took over is awful. The last shipped project (Horizon VR?) was a nightmare to work with.
- The Sony acquisition has negatively impacted many departments. Since the acquisition they have lost over 100 employees and had Firesprite culture dismantled piece by piece. Sony implemented a hiring pause that put pressure on several teams and caused many staff to have complete burnout.
- Founders jumped ship after they got their golden parachutes (after the Firesprite and Fabrik Games acquisition).
- People are afraid to even give input on their own work and disappear if they challenge the new studio heads.
- Understaffed projects that are often poorly managed.
- Projects in development hell.
- Chaotic production on almost every project. Resulting in wasted time and people running around like headless chickens crunching to get stuff in last minute. Lack of clear direction in many projects. Too many leads/directors (especially after the Sony acquisition). They bite off more than they can chew resulting in cancelled projects. All projects are understaffed resulting on a lot of people getting moved from project to project.
- Management and many employees have limited experience with Unreal Engine and a certain project is suffering as a result. Unlikely to ship.

Remember Pete Ellis? The former Naughty Dog dev who went to Firesprite to work as a game director for their narrative-driven horror game? He left this month.
The same goes for the lead designer who worked on Horizon Call of the Mountain. Gone.

Over 100 developers left since Sony bought them, game development is chaotic and projects are getting canceled. The Sony acquisition has had a negative impact on the culture and leadership. Before the acquisition there were pretty much only positive reviews on Glassdoor.
Doesn't sound good."