Until Dawn 2 in development @ Firesprite

CrackmanNL

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With the nearing release of Until Dawn remake there has been 2 new endings uncovered that hint at a sequel:
*spoilers!* from Crawlplays, Victoria Kennedy from Eurogamer wrote a summary/article about it.

Spheshal Nick responded on it (he has leaked stuff before but ofc take it with grain of salt)


Colin Moriarty (@Sacred Symbols 53:24) broke the story while back of Firesprite working on Project Heartbreak, worked on by Mondo Golam (animation director, ex-Rockstar) and written by Pierre Sheret (Telltales writing director); perhaps on an Island with a female protagonist.

We've seen job listings at Firesprite with the following: "This huge, highly ambitious partnership project takes atmosphere, storytelling, player agency and narrative firmly into ground-breaking territory on next-generation hardware technologies."

Firesprite has had lay-offs reported by Jason Schreier, this affected the alleged (not green-lit) Twisted Metal, Project Heartbreak is up next for Firesprite

on which Schreier replied in the Reddit thread that he didn't say it was a new IP

From the xDev leak in 2022 Heartbreak and Project Gates were already uncovered as survival horror although the Decima engine for Ballistic Moon did not line-up, the switch to UE5 in line with Firesprites project does. As well as the recent lay-offs at Ballistic Moon after they had finished Until Dawn likely meaning Sony is not following up with funding for the sequel there.
(interesting Project Carbon of Sumo still up, rest has been revealed, leaked or cancelled)
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With the scorn relationship between Sony and SuperMassive it's highly likely Firesprite has taken the IP since the remake has been outsourced to Ballistic Moon. Which makes sense to remake to bring it up to par and not influence the development pipeline of the sequel coming to PS5.

We know with the upcoming movie adaptation but also from the business meeting G&N segment that Until Dawn is considered as a world class franchise with potential for growth and investments within Sony (rip Concord).

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Bryank75

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Difficult to use Decima if you're not a well established studio. Even Bend Studios isn't out there using it. And if you're very well established, you're using your own engine like ND, Insomniac, and Santa Monica.
I am so grateful that Sony has so many capable studios with their own engines.

It really makes the games feel and look unique.

I just feel Unreal has been troublesome in terms of optimization etc from what we seem to get on the customer side.
 
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mibu no ookami

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I am so grateful that Sony has so many capable studios with their own engines.

It really makes the games feel and look unique.

I just feel Unreal has been troublesome in terms of optimization etc from what we seem to get on the customer side.

It's kind of a catch-22. If any major Sony studio used UE5, they would put out a polished product, but at the same time these major studios won't use UE5 because that's a massive bite out of their operating income.

The closest we're going to get to that is Bend who is tiers below the rest of the major studios. Bend is like a 3rd or 4th tier studio within Sony.
 
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Neversummer

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Betting this will release day n date on PC because who tf ask for this? Such investment for a ip that has no X facto.

PS promoting PC a direct competitor platform including Valve/Steam own platform, storefront & console hardware lol. It makes the rumors of a PS handheld that more head scratching, that shit bout to flop hard in the PS6 gen with Steamdeck 2 & Switch 2 out & having PS games on there hardware/storefront + having permanent first party exclusive unlike PS



 

Bryank75

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It's kind of a catch-22. If any major Sony studio used UE5, they would put out a polished product, but at the same time these major studios won't use UE5 because that's a massive bite out of their operating income.

The closest we're going to get to that is Bend who is tiers below the rest of the major studios. Bend is like a 3rd or 4th tier studio within Sony.
Do Sony not get a preferential rate since they invested so much in Epic?
 

mibu no ookami

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Do Sony not get a preferential rate since they invested so much in Epic?

Potentially, but unless there is a leak, we're never going to know that.

Sony has a weird relationship with Epic. Epic wanted Sony games exclusively on EGS and Sony said no, even though Epic was promising quite a bit of money.

It's funny how Tencent got to places before Sony and how they've invested in similar things.
 
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CrackmanNL

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That's my gripe with the new studios, I expected some of them to utilise the Decima engine. You need to make a cut-off at a certain point with such a marvellous engine and that's what they should'v done with the new/start-up studios. Now with Firesprite doing UE5 you can't suddenly backtrack for their next project.

I understand experienced devs are not looking forward to start from ''scratch'' and modern game development with outsourcing is easier to get UE5 programmers. But that should be the task of Guerilla setting up some sort of xDev team for the engine, likely they are doing it with the promotion of the technical director of Decima.
 
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mibu no ookami

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That's my gripe with the new studios, I expected some of them to utilise the Decima engine. You need to make a cut-off at a certain point with such a marvellous engine and that's what they should'v done with the new/start-up studios. Now with Firesprite doing UE5 you can't suddenly backtrack for their next project.

I understand experienced devs are not looking forward to start from ''scratch'' and modern game development with outsourcing is easier to get UE5 programmers. But that should be the task of Guerilla setting up some sort of xDev team for the engine, likely they are doing it with the promotion of the technical director of Decima.

It's about upfront cost vs backend cost.

For a start up, upfront cost is difficult to swallow. It's not just engineers that need to get up to speed with an engine, it's literally everyone, art designers, sound designers e.t.c.

Are you really going to invest in teaching everyone how to use decima for months with more limited support increasing the cost of development substantially with no promise that you're ever going to work on another Sony game?

It simply wouldn't make sense.
 
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CrackmanNL

CrackmanNL

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For a start up, upfront cost is difficult to swallow. It's not just engineers that need to get up to speed with an engine, it's literally everyone, art designers, sound designers e.t.c.
Yeah should'v clarified a Sony incubated team or studio they invest in for the long term with new-gen talent. We've seen the results at Kojima studios that moved from the Fox Engine but that's more the exception than norm, but pretty swift shift while heavily supported by Guerilla.

You either save licensing fees or earn on them Sony needs to make a decision there, the benefit of Decima is that it's developed to utilise the PS console. At least we can say that Nixxes has potential in the future (in a supportive role) with it and logistically is not far from Guerilla.
 

Yurinka

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Do Sony not get a preferential rate since they invested so much in Epic?
As far as I know yes, they get to play earlier with the new toys plus also (like other VIP customers) in feature requests and support. Specially in the movies/tv shows side.
 

MrAss

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It's kind of a catch-22. If any major Sony studio used UE5, they would put out a polished product, but at the same time these major studios won't use UE5 because that's a massive bite out of their operating income.

The closest we're going to get to that is Bend who is tiers below the rest of the major studios. Bend is like a 3rd or 4th tier studio within Sony.
I kinda agree. All Sony's 1st tier studios using their own engines. Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Polyphony and even Asobi
 

mibu no ookami

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Yeah should'v clarified a Sony incubated team or studio they invest in for the long term with new-gen talent. We've seen the results at Kojima studios that moved from the Fox Engine but that's more the exception than norm, but pretty swift shift while heavily supported by Guerilla.

You either save licensing fees or earn on them Sony needs to make a decision there, the benefit of Decima is that it's developed to utilise the PS console. At least we can say that Nixxes has potential in the future (in a supportive role) with it and logistically is not far from Guerilla.

Sony is looking at doing stuff like this but that's primarily what they're doing in lower cost areas with things like the China Hero Project.

Sony is also creating their own new studios such as the studio rumored to be run by Blundell.

You also see Sony investing in early startups like Firewalk and Haven, but then you see how people respond to them online.

It's not just easy to wave a wand and create new studios and the fanbase isn't super supportive when things don't go exactly how they want them to.

It's easier to find talented people have them work together on an engine they're all familiar with, see if they can be successful and then maybe pivot to using something like decima in the future.

Kojima Productions was already an established group.
 

mibu no ookami

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I kinda agree. All Sony's 1st tier studios using their own engines. Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Polyphony and even Asobi


Tier 1
Naughty Dog

Tier 2
Santa Monica
Insomniac
Guerrilla
Polyphony Digital
Team Asobi
Bungie

Tier 3
Sucker Punch
Bluepoint Games
Nixxes

Tier 4
Media Molecule
Housemarque

Tier 5
Bend
San Diego Studio

Tier 6
Firesprite
Firewalk

TBD: Haven
 
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Petekilla

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Tier 1
Naughty Dog

Tier 2
Santa Monica
Insomniac
Guerrilla
Polyphony Digital
Team Asobi
Bungie

Tier 3
Sucker Punch
Bluepoint Games
Nixxes

Tier 4
Media Molecule
Housemarque

Tier 5
Bend
San Diego Studio

Tier 6
Firesprite
Firewalk

TBD: Haven
SSM is also Tier 1. Every game they put out is 92/93 Meta or over.
 

mibu no ookami

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SSM is also Tier 1. Every game they put out is 92/93 Meta or over.

They've only made one successful franchise. I can't put them in the same tier as Naughty Dog who made Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter (including Crash Team Racing and Jak X), Uncharted and TLOU.

Santa Monica has made 5 successful games, only two massively successful games (2018 and Ragnarok).

They can't be in the same tier. We'll see what they do with their new IP, but they have a lot of catching up to do in order to be with Naughty Dog.
 

Gods&Monsters

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Nick is talking like it's new info but we knew about these Firesprite rumours for months and months?