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

[AshHunter216]

I don't even know why Sony bought that studio so I googled them. They made nothing interesting besides The Persistence. What was this "culture" they lost? Sackboy Run in 2014? Lol

Their next game is Star Citizen according to Wikipedia. Sony will have their own Starfield

They do VR stuff and they're also rumored to be working on a horror game, as well as a twisted metal game.

 

[Jim Ryan]

I'm willing to bet shuhei will do some kumbaya bullshit with Xbox. Sony need someone who will fight.

They need the Mike Tyson of gaming CEOs... Someone that will absolutely demolish the competition, take their heads off.

Fully focused on what PlayStation is and to hell with all the other platforms. Customers and fans first.

Elevate the 1st party and rebuild those third party relationships so there are many exclusives by default.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

If I were going to invest in the Big 3, honestly right now I'd only feel safe putting money in Nintendo. I think they've demonstrated a long-term cultural tradition with their upper management, BoDs and the such that has lead to consistency and stability for their employees and software direction (in practice and communicated to the fanbase/customer base).

I don't really know WTF is going on at Sony right now but I'm starting to see a bigger picture unfolding provided this speculation on Firesprite is also true. I think it would show more clearly why Jim Ryan, even Connie Boothe etc. are departing. Just hope the changes being implemented are the right ones and the ship can get smooth-sailing again after what might be a bit of a rough patch next year and into 2025, 1P-wise at least.

As for Microsoft? Well they let poor performers fail upwards and could very well screw up with ABK down the line but at least if they're more conservative in changing what things actually work, next year could be pretty decent for the brand. Still think Xbox as a console is getting phased out/shifted to a PC-centric gaming hardware line, though.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

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

St. Elmo isn't one of the Xbox fanboys I recognize off ResetERA and, trust me, I've recognized a lot. Got a list of them (and it's growing). And they were just reposting what others were saying, seems the source is an anonymous employee/ex-employee from Firesprite. Although I could be wrong about them, as I don't recall all the horrid stuff I saw cheerleading-wise in the ABK thread and adjacent threads thereof. They could've slipped by me.

Regardless, all the news of the departures, layoffs, rumors of further layoffs and departures. It might not all be true but something definitely went haywire BTS at SIE and they are course-correcting in fuller effect now. Hiroki Titoki is acting as interim CEO at SIE so these are his calls with I assume Jim Ryan providing consultation/assistance since he hasn't exactly left yet.

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

And why haven't Sony/SIE done anything to set the record straight? They're just content to let FUD that could, in these cases, actually affect their stocks, run rampant online by bad-faith actors, just because most of the talk's confined to the enthusiast spaces online? Why should we as fans have to put up with this stuff all the time, or defend against it, or pretend it doesn't exist when it (the rumors/speculation) clearly does?

 

[AshHunter216]

St. Elmo isn't one of the Xbox fanboys I recognize off ResetERA and, trust me, I've recognized a lot. Got a list of them (and it's growing). And they were just reposting what others were saying, seems the source is an anonymous employee/ex-employee from Firesprite.

Either way, all the news of the departures, layoffs, rumors of further layoffs and departures. It might not all be true but something definitely went haywire BTS at SIE and they are course-correcting in fuller effect now. Hiroki Titoki is acting as interim CEO at SIE so these are his calls with I assume Jim Ryan providing consultation/assistance since he hasn't exactly left yet.

Totoki doesn't officially take over as interim until next March. It sucks what's happening with the Sony layoffs at the moment, but this is an industry-wide thing unfortunately. I'm also skeptical of the sensational (Sony in disarray, PlayStation is dying/collapsing) takes as well and just feels like Xbox fanboys and shills piling on to push a narrative against the platform they hate so much.

 

[FatKaz]

Totoki doesn't officially take over as interim until next March. It sucks what's happening with the Sony layoffs at the moment, but this is an industry-wide thing unfortunately. I'm also skeptical of the sensational (Sony in disarray, PlayStation is dying/collapsing) takes as well and just feels like Xbox fanboys and shills piling on to push a narrative against the platform they hate so much.

It's not even just gaming, tech sector as a whole is getting hit with layoffs all year.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Totoki doesn't officially take over as interim until next March. It sucks what's happening with the Sony layoffs at the moment, but this is an industry-wide thing unfortunately. I'm also skeptical of the sensational (Sony in disarray, PlayStation is dying/collapsing) takes as well and just feels like Xbox fanboys and shills piling on to push a narrative against the platform they hate so much.

I don't see why SIE can't be more directly communicative with their fanbase online and at least deliver news on upcoming projects/game collabs/games etc. that would in their own way counter these negative speculative points.

Their lack of communication is the main reason bad-faith rumors & speculation is able to proliferate in the first place. Like I've said before, Sony's presence online in enthusiasts spaces when it comes to communicating about news and things pertaining to PlayStation, is garbage. They're practically non-existent.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Well, we at least know about Marathon, Fairgames, Helldivers 2 and Concord. People complain Sony "isn't communicating" when really they just don't like what Sony is saying.

Yeah, no shit. Those are all relatively little-known (IP brand-wise) games in a space that might not be conductive to the type of game design, scope, ambition etc. that people know to expect from Sony's AAA traditional titles. Of course the reception to Sony revealing only really GaaS titles of late 1P-wise, and not more 1P traditional AAA or even AA games, is going to cause heavily mixed reception.

What I'm more impressed by is you seem to think a platform holder's jarring pivot being led with mostly CGI trailer reveals is something to be celebrated or embraced.

 

[flaccidsnake]

Yeah, no shit. Those are all relatively little-known (IP brand-wise) games in a space that might not be conductive to the type of game design, scope, ambition etc. that people know to expect from Sony's AAA traditional titles. Of course the reception to Sony revealing only really GaaS titles of late 1P-wise, and not more 1P traditional AAA or even AA games, is going to cause heavily mixed reception.

What I'm more impressed by is you seem to think a platform holder's jarring pivot being led with mostly CGI trailer reveals is something to be celebrated or embraced.

Going 100% single player in the PS4 era was a jarring pivot. I miss socom and killzone and warhark and mag and resistance and motorstorm and last of us factions. I'm happy to see Sony return to some kind of balance.

 

[Cool hand luke]

Nah, I don't believe this. We know things are bad at Xbox but all we have are rumours that don't pass the astroturf sniff test for PlayStation.

 

[AshHunter216]

I don't see why SIE can't be more directly communicative with their fanbase online and at least deliver news on upcoming projects/game collabs/games etc. that would in their own way counter these negative speculative points.

Their lack of communication is the main reason bad-faith rumors & speculation is able to proliferate in the first place. Like I've said before, Sony's presence online in enthusiasts spaces when it comes to communicating about news and things pertaining to PlayStation, is garbage. They're practically non-existent.

I agree that they could do a better job communicating. They've been bad at messaging since the PS3 at least, but were a bit better during the ps4 launch.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

People complained about games being announced too early all gen, last gen.

Now we don’t know anything but hardware releases

 

[Systemshock2023]

every point wildly wrong.

also lol at 'commiefornia' as if the bay area isn't a tech-libertarian hell hole.

Big tech woke AF mate, some might be libertarian but they are not the majority.

 

[flaccidsnake]

Big tech woke AF mate, some might be libertarian but they are not the majority.

Seattle monument: Bezos' Balls

 

[Darth Vader]

The lack of AAA single player games from PS Studios this year is astroturfing

TLOU Online being in development hell is astroturfing

Multiple layoff rounds is astroturfing

The closing of PixelOpus is astroturfing

Two out of three top executives leaving is astroturfing.

People not seeing the writing on the wall are one and the same as those Xbox fanatics that suck up to everything Philnoccio says.

 

[Cool hand luke]

The lack of AAA single player games from PS Studios this year is astroturfing

TLOU Online being in development hell is astroturfing

Multiple layoff rounds is astroturfing

The closing of PixelOpus is astroturfing

Two out of three top executives leaving is astroturfing.

People not seeing the writing on the wall are one and the same as those Xbox fanatics that suck up to everything Philnoccio says.

Sony is duuuhhhoooomed

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Two out of three top executives leaving is astroturfing.

Connie Booth was not a top executive, you didn’t even know who she was last week

 

[Darth Vader]

Sony is duuuhhhoooomed

Where did I say that?

 

[nongkris]

Isn't great how Playstation wasted millions to make a flop VR headset only to completely butcher and close every studio involved with making exclusive VR games.

 

[Thunderstorm__]

The lack of AAA single player games from PS Studios this year is astroturfing

TLOU Online being in development hell is astroturfing

Multiple layoff rounds is astroturfing

The closing of PixelOpus is astroturfing

Two out of three top executives leaving is astroturfing.

People not seeing the writing on the wall are one and the same as those Xbox fanatics that suck up to everything Philnoccio says.

This. But you shouldn’t expect fanboys to act different, regardless of what platform they fanboy over.