Why is Sony's 1st party studio "Insomniac Games" so bad at making successful original IPs?
They tried before with Sony's help. They had huge budgets and big marketing campaigns for Resistance and it never became a blockbuster hit franchise.
They tried with Microsoft's help. Sunset Overdrive had a big budget and a huge Xbox marketing campaign and the game still flopped and didn't even sell a million copies on Xbox.
They thought VR might save them and so they made Edge of Nowhere and Stormland. But like with most VR games they had little to no success.
Song of the Deep, Fuse, Fruit Fusion.. all flops.
All the have is Ratchet & Clank. A 2 decade old action-adventure/platformer hybrid.
And they had to bundle Rift Apart like crazy to sell over 1 million copies on the PS5.
Well they finally struck gold with the Spider-Man game. A reskinned Sunset Overdrive but with Spider-Man as the main character. A Marvel IP.
They realized they can't make their own IPs, so now it's all about licensed Marvel IPs. Spider-Man, Wolverine, Miles...
(Let's ignore the GaaS they're working. But maybe this one will be a Marvel game too.)
Marvel fans and console warriors are talking a lot about Insomniac on social media these days because they're making Spider-man games.
But the reality is: Take the Marvel IPs away (which will happen some day) and Insomniac will be left with the Ratchet & Clank IP. Nothing more.
And when Sony realizes that they have a huge AAA studio that is struggling to make successful games... they will do the same thing they did with Evolution Studios, Cambridge Studio or Liverpool Studio.
Insomniac needs more talent. Hiring some Marvel comic fanboys won't be a long-term solution.
Maybe they should try what Guerrilla, Bend Studio, Sucker Punch or Santa Monica Studio are doing these days. Copying Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed games.
Just call it "Ghost of Bloodborne" and make another Sony/Ubisoft open-world game set in the Victorian era. It might sell more than Resistance, Ratchet & Clank and Sunset Overdrive combined.
They tried before with Sony's help. They had huge budgets and big marketing campaigns for Resistance and it never became a blockbuster hit franchise.
They tried with Microsoft's help. Sunset Overdrive had a big budget and a huge Xbox marketing campaign and the game still flopped and didn't even sell a million copies on Xbox.
They thought VR might save them and so they made Edge of Nowhere and Stormland. But like with most VR games they had little to no success.
Song of the Deep, Fuse, Fruit Fusion.. all flops.
All the have is Ratchet & Clank. A 2 decade old action-adventure/platformer hybrid.
And they had to bundle Rift Apart like crazy to sell over 1 million copies on the PS5.
Well they finally struck gold with the Spider-Man game. A reskinned Sunset Overdrive but with Spider-Man as the main character. A Marvel IP.
They realized they can't make their own IPs, so now it's all about licensed Marvel IPs. Spider-Man, Wolverine, Miles...
(Let's ignore the GaaS they're working. But maybe this one will be a Marvel game too.)
Marvel fans and console warriors are talking a lot about Insomniac on social media these days because they're making Spider-man games.
But the reality is: Take the Marvel IPs away (which will happen some day) and Insomniac will be left with the Ratchet & Clank IP. Nothing more.
And when Sony realizes that they have a huge AAA studio that is struggling to make successful games... they will do the same thing they did with Evolution Studios, Cambridge Studio or Liverpool Studio.
Insomniac needs more talent. Hiring some Marvel comic fanboys won't be a long-term solution.
Maybe they should try what Guerrilla, Bend Studio, Sucker Punch or Santa Monica Studio are doing these days. Copying Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed games.
Just call it "Ghost of Bloodborne" and make another Sony/Ubisoft open-world game set in the Victorian era. It might sell more than Resistance, Ratchet & Clank and Sunset Overdrive combined.
