The real studio Sony needs to buy

[Eternal_Wings]

Seriously?

Buy a studio then gut them?

Wouldn’t it just be better to create a new studio?

Well creating studio from ground doesn't work always out. It's a gamble with high risk. Also Sony doesn't have time to forge new IPs and cultivate them. If Sony decides not acquire a publisher, then middle-sized studios like Nihon Falcom, FurRyu, JP GAMES could be the key for success. The IPs have a solid foundation and Sony just needs to raise these franchises to the next level with more budget and new equipment.

 

[mibu no ookami]

Seriously?

Buy a studio then gut them?

Wouldn’t it just be better to create a new studio?

Where did I say they should gut them? I said they could probably reduce some roles if there are redundancies, I never said they should gut them.

I think the size of Level-5, their art style, and their design philosophy combined with Asobi is what could make them a juggernaut of a team.

Their company page suggests that they have about 300 people. I'm not sure if they need to retain all 300. That's all I was saying there.

But ideally you'd have this team making larger Astro Bot games and Alundra or Dark Cloud games in the future.

Buy Level-5 means that you don't have to ramp up in size for Asobi which can take some time and have mixed results. Partnering them with another studio can also have mixed results, but you have significantly more structure off the bat.

You give them 4-5 years to make a game like Breath of the Wild and a team size of ~365 people...

 

[Muddasar]

Well creating studio from ground doesn't work always out. It's a gamble with high risk. Also Sony doesn't have time to forge new IPs and cultivate them. If Sony decides not acquire a publisher, then middle-sized studios like Nihon Falcom, FurRyu, JP GAMES could be the key for success. The IPs have a solid foundation and Sony just needs to raise these franchises to the next level with more budget and new equipment.

Same goes for buying studios. Look at Firewalk and Bungie so far.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Same goes for buying studios. Look at Firewalk and Bungie so far.

No Firewalk and Bungie are a completely different case. Bungie was bought out because of Jim Ryan's greed.

If Sony gets Nihon Falcom, it would be an achievement.

 

[Muddasar]

No Firewalk and Bungie are a completely different case. Bungie was bought out because of Jim Ryan's greed.

If Sony gets Nihon Falcom, it would be an achievement.

Why are you moving goalposts?

You said creating new studios are a risk. So are buying studios like Bungie.

Same thing.

Let’s stick to Level 5 here.

They would have been a good acquisition 10-15 years ago.

Not anymore. Suggesting you try to create a Team Asobi out of them by reducing their staff is ridiculous especially after buying them.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

Why are you moving goalposts?

You said creating new studios are a risk. So are buying studios like Bungie.

Same thing.

Let’s stick to Level 5 here.

They would have been a good acquisition 10-15 years ago.

Not anymore. Suggesting you try to create a Team Asobi out of them by reducing their staff is ridiculous especially after buying them.

Who is moving goalposts? I literally said in my first post, Level 5 wouldn't be the solution.

Nihon Falcom is different case, they would be an acquisition worth it. With enough budget they could raise LoH and YS to a new realm.

 

[Muddasar]

Who is moving goalposts? I literally said in my first post, Level 5 wouldn't be the solution.

Nihon Falcom is different case, they would be an acquisition worth it. With enough budget they could raise LoH and YS to a new realm.

Anyway let’s move on.

I’m not disagreeing with you about Nihon Falcom. They would be a decent acquisition.

Nippon Ichi is another.

Both would be relatively cheap so low risk.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

@TrishaCat Stop crying dude.

 

[TrishaCat]

do y'all even play NIS games
bonus points: besides Disgaea

 

[Eternal_Wings]

do y'all even play NIS games
bonus points: besides Disgaea

NIS become literally big with Sony Playstation lol. PS1-PS2 made them known to the west.

 

[TrishaCat]

NIS become literally big with Sony Playstation lol. PS1-PS2 made them known to the west.

That doesn't answer my question. Do you play their games? Did you play Labyrinth of Refrain or Labyrinth of Galleria? Yomawari? Liar Prince? Poison Control? Witch & the Hundred Knight?

 

[Muddasar]

That doesn't answer my question. Do you play their games? Did you play Labyrinth of Refrain or Labyrinth of Galleria? Yomawari? Liar Prince? Poison Control? Witch & the Hundred Knight?

Looking forward to playing them when they go Playstation exclusive after the acquisition.

 

[TrishaCat]

Looking forward to playing them when they go Playstation exclusive after the acquisition.

Most of their games are already on Playstation. You can play them right now. They even went out of their way to re-release all their old PS1 and PS2 titles on modern platforms, some of which in HD (see Phantom Brave, Rhapsody 3, and La Pucelle Ragnarok)
Witch & the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition and Witch & the Hundred Knight 2 are even only on PS4 currently if you wanna play exclusives.

 

[Zzero]

Nah hogwarts was just great

Outside of the school the world was bland and boring with little to see and do. Tiny copy/paste caves with few enemy types to populate them.

 

[Stonehorn81]

Sometimes consolidation is bad and other times you give the opportunity for studios to work on games they otherwise couldn't and you give them some financial stability.

Buying FromSoftware is an example of the consolidation you're talking about. It would also likely remove souls games from Xbox and delay them on PC.

You understand Bandai Namco has the right of first refusal? LOL, you literally just made that up. Tencent and Sony have already acquired large chunks of the company.

They acquired small chunks, but after they started work on ER, they signed deals with Bandai. If From sells their controlling interest, Bamco has first right of refusal.

 

[mibu no ookami]

They acquired small chunks, but after they started work on ER, they signed deals with Bandai. If From sells their controlling interest, Bamco has first right of refusal.

That should be easy enough to cite a source for.

 

[arvfab]

Outside of the school the world was bland and boring with little to see and do. Tiny copy/paste caves with few enemy types to populate them.

I agree. A good game made worse because of a bloated open world, like Elden Ring and RDR2.

 

[Yurinka]

And where are Japan Studios now?

Japan Studios was gutted to create Team Asobi.

They didn't shut down Japan Studios. They restructured it, splitting thier internal and external development parts again and rebranding them again.

Before, Japan Studio had different internal teams working in multiple games at the same time and most staff rotated between these teams and the name of these intenal teams also changed over time. With the restructuring all their internal developers got merged into one of these internal teams, Team Asobi.

Their internal development part is now called Team Asobi, and their 2nd party publishing/support part is now called XDEV Japan. With the restructuring both teams got a new and bigger office in the same building where they were expected to grow.

Since the 90s they "Japan Studio" got rebranded, merged, branched off, or moved from division/subdivision multiple times. As an example, Polyphony Digital started as one of their teams branching off to create their own separate team.

Since the restructuring (the supposed closure) of 3 years ago they released:

• Death Stranding Director's Cut
• Stellar Blade
• Rise of the Ronin
• Astro Bot

They are known to be working on:

• Astro Bot DLC
• Prototypes likely to be used in future Astro Bot titles or other future Team Asobi games
• Lost Soul Aside
• Convallaria
• Death Stranding 2
• Physint

So they are there, in the same SIE Japanese HQ they were before. Doing the same they did before.

 

[Muddasar]

They didn't shut down Japan Studios. They restructured it, splitting thier internal and external development parts again and rebranding them again.

So they were gutted and Team Asobi is the remnants of what is left of Japan Studios.

 

[Yurinka]

So they were gutted and Team Asobi is the remnants of what is left of Japan Studios.

You don't deserve to use that avatar