Sony Reportedly Investing Over $250 Million in Bend Studio’s Next Game

[Eternal_Wings]

letting his often-expressed frustration color his perceptions a bit. It is worth noting that Ross left Bend Studio in 2020, so his knowledge of the new game’s budget is likely second-hand.



Still, while $250 million is quite a lot of money, it’s not unprecedented for AAA games. A report from 2023 indicates that Rockstar is spending about as much on Grand Theft Auto 6. Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard merger also revealed that Activision spent over $300 Million developing Call of Duty. Thus, the quarter-billion Sony’s spending on Bend Studio’s new game seems to be a symptom of ballooning development costs.

Source

 

[Danja]

So now he's saying Sony didn't want to fund a Days Gone sequel?? I thought it was Bend's manage that declined the pitch or is he now trying to stir the pot??

 

[Gediminas]

So now he's saying Sony didn't want to fund a Days Gone sequel?? I thought it was Bend's manage that declined the pitch or is he now trying to stir the pot??

he tries to stir. Bend management declined all pitches of DG2. even Shawn Layden said in one of his interviews, if he had seen it, he would have greenlit it in a heartbeat.

 

[Johnic]

Great news. DG was a good game.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

This is exactly why Sony wants to go away from California overall. Hermen, Nishino and Sony overall don't like the pricings in California. Industry insider said that Sony is considering moving their PlayStation HQ back to Tokyo. In relation Japan with its low prices is very attractive for cosy oriented companies like Sony. The chatter is also Sony reallocate their Californian studios to UK. That's why the SoP was focused heavily on Asian titles. Sony will now target the Japanese, Asian and European market overall.

 

[Danja]

he tries to stir. Bend management declined all pitches of DG2. even Shawn Layden said in one of his interviews, if he had seen it, he would have greenlit it in a heartbeat.

Yes that's what I remember hearing. He seems to still be bitter and it's not a good look to even be airing out stuff like this. It literally is now gonna get Sony Bend in unnecessary online media crosshair BS

 

[Danja]

Thie is exactly why Sony wants to go away from California overall. Hermen, Nishino and Sony overall don't like the pricings in California. Industry insider said that Sony is considering moving their PlayStation HQ back to Tokyo. In relation Japan with its low prices is very attractive for cosy oriented companies like Sony. The chatter is also Sony reallocate their Californian studios to UK. That's why the SoP was focused heavily on Asian titles. Sony will now target the Japanese, Asian and European market overall.

Bend ain't located in California but they should remove their HQ from the US.

 

[Johnic]

Thie is exactly why Sony wants to go away from California overall. Hermen, Nishino and Sony overall don't like the pricings in California. Industry insider said that Sony is considering moving their PlayStation HQ back to Tokyo. In relation Japan with its low prices is very attractive for cosy oriented companies like Sony. The chatter is also Sony reallocate their Californian studios to UK. That's why the SoP was focused heavily on Asian titles. Sony will now target the Japanese, Asian and European market overall.

How's that gonna affect game development and talent retention, though? Do they expect entire teams to move over to the UK or work from home? That can be a bad situation.

 

[Yobo]

He's such a little bitch about it lmao

 

[mibu no ookami]

Nothing Jeff Ross says should be taken even remotely seriously or as fact.

 

[Yurinka]

So now he's saying Sony didn't want to fund a Days Gone sequel?? I thought it was Bend's manage that declined the pitch or is he now trying to stir the pot??

He and Garvin explained it before in interviews, they said that never pitched DG2 to PS Studios/SIE, so since nobody got a DG2 pitch outisde Bend nobody could reject it outside it.

He means the studio manager/corporate suits inside Bend, were against making DG2 and blocked the pitch to be sent to PS Studios/SIE.

The first post DG1 pitch that PS Studios/SIE received from Bend was the new IP they are working on.

They said that the (non Bend) Sony guys were always supportive and understanding with them even during huge delays and after the game reviews.

Thie is exactly why Sony wants to go away from California overall. Hermen, Nishino and Sony overall don't like the pricings in California.

No, they aren't moving away.

Hermen was asked in the QA how are they trying to reduce costs. He explained the main method that all AAA teams, not only from Sony, use since like 3 generations ago: to codevelop / outsource work to teams in cheaper regions.

He mentioned the USA west coast because it's where they have most of their main studios, but Sony and any other AAA publisher also does that with basically any AA/AAA game developed by a lead team located anywhere around the world.

Not only because having higher salaries in this region, but because the amount of people needed in the development of a AAA isn't linear, there's a point where they need a way bigger amout of people. Instead of hiring and firing them some time later, for them is also cheaper to simply hire outsourcing studios temporally for that period.

 

[daniel5043]

letting his often-expressed frustration color his perceptions a bit. It is worth noting that Ross left Bend Studio in 2020, so his knowledge of the new game’s budget is likely second-hand.



Still, while $250 million is quite a lot of money, it’s not unprecedented for AAA games. A report from 2023 indicates that Rockstar is spending about as much on Grand Theft Auto 6. Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard merger also revealed that Activision spent over $300 Million developing Call of Duty. Thus, the quarter-billion Sony’s spending on Bend Studio’s new game seems to be a symptom of ballooning development costs.

Source

I'm calling bull for that one it's more than likely he's just stirring the pot like jaffes does

 

[quest4441]

Who knew we could get drama about a studio based in Bend, Oregon LMAO. No way sony would spend 250 million on those buffoons in oregon, Sucker Punch being a better dev made Tsushima for 60 million and Sony Bend got a cheque for a quarter of a billion dollars, I want what this guy is smoking

 

[mibu no ookami]

Thie is exactly why Sony wants to go away from California overall. Hermen, Nishino and Sony overall don't like the pricings in California. Industry insider said that Sony is considering moving their PlayStation HQ back to Tokyo. In relation Japan with its low prices is very attractive for cosy oriented companies like Sony. The chatter is also Sony reallocate their Californian studios to UK. That's why the SoP was focused heavily on Asian titles. Sony will now target the Japanese, Asian and European market overall.

First, I've heard no such chatter about relocating their California studios in the UK. It simply doesn't work like that.

Furthermore, that's not what Herman meant. Is California expensive? Absolutely and are they investing in cheaper areas where they can be more aggressive about talent recruiting by not being one of many in the area? Absolutely.

Haven is in Quebec, Firewalk is in Washington, Bluepoint is in Austin, Firesprite is in Liverpool, Housemarque is in Helsinki, and Nixxes is in the Netherlands.

All of these studios are investments outside of California.

In time, these studios can be grown out to similar sizes of Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Santa Monica Studios... but these are still the crown jewels of Sony (with Guerrilla being in Netherlands).

Blundell's new internal studio though... most likely in California...

 

[Bryank75]

250 seems like too much. Is it justified?

 

[mibu no ookami]

He and Garvin explained it before in interviews, they said that never pitched DG2 to PS Studios/SIE, so since nobody got a DG2 pitch outisde Bend nobody could reject it outside it.

He means the studio manager/corporate suits inside Bend, were against making DG2 and blocked the pitch to be sent to PS Studios/SIE.

The first post DG1 pitch that PS Studios/SIE received from Bend was the new IP they are working on.

They said that the (non Bend) Sony guys were always supportive and understanding with them even during huge delays and after the game reviews.

He said that but he is now after the fact blaming it on Herman Hulst, saying he had no interest in the IP.

He also refers to a fan created image as evidence that Sony doesn't care about the IP (he did not know it was fan made at the time)

In other words, he is a clown.

 

[Zzero]

Thie is exactly why Sony wants to go away from California overall. Hermen, Nishino and Sony overall don't like the pricings in California. Industry insider said that Sony is considering moving their PlayStation HQ back to Tokyo. In relation Japan with its low prices is very attractive for cosy oriented companies like Sony. The chatter is also Sony reallocate their Californian studios to UK. That's why the SoP was focused heavily on Asian titles. Sony will now target the Japanese, Asian and European market overall.

That "insider" is pulling your wings if he's saying that they're going to "relocate" a major studio from California to the UK.

 

[Kokoloko]

Days Gone 2 wasnt gonna happen. All there major studios are already making sequels TLOU2, Spiderman 2, GodR, Horizon2, GOT2. Plus Death Stranding 2. They need something different.


250 million. So selling 5million copies which is under what supposedly Days Gone sold, then it would make 350 million at $70

 

[mibu no ookami]

250 seems like too much. Is it justified?

Ross doesn't know what he is talking about, but one can conclude based on time and staffing how much a game could cost.

Day's Gone came out in 2019, if the next game came out next year that would be 6 years of development. That's 40 million dollars per year. That's slightly high, and my guess given that we haven't seen anything on this game, is that it's probably more likely 2026 than 2025, so 7 years. That brings it down to 35 million a year, with probably some ramp up next year in cost towards the last two years.

 

[mibu no ookami]

I mean
That "insider" is pulling your wings if he's saying that they're going to "relocate" a major studio from California to the UK.

I could see Nishino moving back to Japan and running Playstation out of there while Herman runs the studios out of California.