Why is Insomniac Games Incapable of making a successful new IP?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Lord Mittens

Community Cat
1 Jul 2022
1,626
2,220
the launch games for xbox one were terrible though. i know people remember them fondly but let's be honest, they only look good in retrospect when comparing to them Xbox's non existent 2016-and-onwards lineup.

I keep hearing about low-rated lauch jank like Ryse Son of Rome (A QTE button mash game), Dead Rising 3 (a maybe 7/10 best brainless zombie basher) and Quantum Break (Which was completely forgettable) precisely because Xbox has had nothing since.

The fact that RYSE is being discussed seriously 10 years later is all you need to know.

Xbox owners are dying for mature, AAA games with realistic visuals and MS just refuses to give them what they want.

I thought Phil Spencer launching Xbox One X with nothing but SUPER LUCKY TALE was baffling, and that things really couldn't get worse... but then I saw the Series X lineup. Yikes.

Hey you take that back!
Killer Instinct is an exception :p
 

RE4-Station

Resident Evil Guru
Content Creator
28 Jun 2022
927
803
probably has a lot to do with the fact Spider-Man is raking in that money, Just like every other studio Sony has in the past 10 years when Spider-Man games are no longer being made by them they will be able to make a new IP that isn't on a system people did not want like the xbox one. Sucker punch made Ghost of Tsushima which was successful, Gurella made Horizon which was successful, and insomniac with Sony's big marketing money can easily make a new IP that's a hit with fans and commercially!
 

LightBolt

Active member
4 Jul 2022
227
261
Let's act like Spider-Man games before Sony and Insomniac Games were selling monsters and all that... Sony and Insomniac Games did an amazing job on them.

While it's a Marvel IP both parties did an amazing job on it.
 
  • fire
Reactions: Sircaw and Muddasar

Rea

Newbie
2 Jul 2022
14
33
Stop replying this troll OP's bait thread guys. We all know Insomniac is not struggling, in fact they are swimming with moneys and gaining popularity days by days. We all know they are one of the best gaming studio in the industry right now. The discussion is going no where, time to ignore this troll thread and move on.
 

Bodycount611

Veteran
1 Jul 2022
1,397
2,420
Spiderman games were always terrible licensed budget slop before insomniac, man i remember that PS1/Dreamcast game. Just terrible. and that one is held up as one of the best, so i can't even imagine what the ones during the PS3/360 era were like, like the piss-poor rated spiderman 3 licensed movie game.

we may as well just consider Spiderman insomniac's IP in terms of gaming. Ever wonder why phil spencer ran in the other direction when marvel was shopping the Spiderman IP around? All the games were garbage and he couldn't fathom spending a cent on it, most likely.

then insomniac came along. marvel owes insomniac an unfathomable amount of money imo. there is no way in hell spiderman is relevant in gaming without insomniac's game. completely saved the IP. and now they're going to do the same for Wolverine too.

these guys are carrying marvel's deadweight gaming initiative on their back. Hell, if anything insomniac is too good for marvel.
 

LightBolt

Active member
4 Jul 2022
227
261
Spiderman games were always terrible licensed budget slop before insomniac, man i remember that PS1/Dreamcast game. Just terrible. and that one is held up as one of the best, so i can't even imagine what the ones during the PS3/360 era were like, like the piss-poor rated spiderman 3 licensed movie game.

we may as well just consider Spiderman insomniac's IP in terms of gaming. Ever wonder why phil spencer ran in the other direction when marvel was shopping the Spiderman IP around? All the games were garbage and he couldn't fathom spending a cent on it, most likely.

then insomniac came along. marvel owes insomniac an unfathomable amount of money imo. there is no way in hell spiderman is relevant in gaming without insomniac's game. completely saved the IP. and now they're going to do the same for Wolverine too.

these guys are carrying marvel's deadweight gaming initiative on their back. Hell, if anything insomniac is too good for marvel.
Just imagine a Black Panther Insomniac produced game bro?
 

Muddasar

Veteran
22 Jun 2022
1,633
2,191
Once Wolverine comes out we will have an idea of what that could look like as it could have a similar combat style as Black Panther id guess

Black Panther will be too similar to Wolverine if made.

I reckon Blade and The Punisher are better options for Insomniac cause their gameplay will be a lot different to Spiderman and Wolverine.
 
27 Jun 2022
17
25
40
Nashville, TN
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.
Now you know they are super successful right?
 
OP
OP
Sleepy Brown

Sleepy Brown

Banned
5 Jul 2022
317
542
Stop replying this troll OP's bait thread guys. We all know Insomniac is not struggling, in fact they are swimming with moneys and gaining popularity days by days. We all know they are one of the best gaming studio in the industry right now. The discussion is going no where, time to ignore this troll thread and move on.
You can keep ignoring the facts. That is your choice, but don't pretend like I said Insomniac can't make successful Marvel games or good Ratchet & Clank games.
I'm saying Insomniac can't make their own successful IPs. And that is a fact. That's why they are a Marvel factory now.

You guys keep saying "Insomniac makes Spider-Man. Spider-Man sold great. Spider-Man 2 will sell great." Yeah no shit.
The thread is about Insomniac struggling to create their own successful IPs. That has been an issue for pretty much 15 years now.
Now you know they are super successful right?
What happens when Disney stops giving them access to their Marvel IPs? Which will happen some day.
More samey Ratchet & Clank sequels? More flops like Fuse and Sunset Overdrive?
 

arvfab

Oldest Guard
23 Jun 2022
2,153
3,207
More flops like Fuse and Sunset Overdrive

So basically, every game which Insomniac did without Sony was a flop. Interesting.

PS: The "Marvel Spider-Man" game IS a new IP. Yes, Spider-Man per se isn't, but this is a new story and reimagination of the characters. Nobody outside of Sony is allowed to continue this story and there is no connection to older games/movies/comics (in fact, it has it's own official comics and books).
 
OP
OP
Sleepy Brown

Sleepy Brown

Banned
5 Jul 2022
317
542
So basically, every game which Insomniac did without Sony was a flop. Interesting.
The Resistance series wasn't a huge success either. It's pretty much Spyro 25 years ago and Ratchet & Clank 20 years ago.
For over 15 years now they are struggling to make their own successful IP.

Guerrilla managed it with Horizon.
Sucker Punch finally did with with Ghost of Tsushima.
Naughty Dog keeps doing it with Uncharted and TLOU.

Insomniac though... decided to work on old Marvel IPs because they can't make their own successful IPs anymore.
 
  • haha
Reactions: Yurinka and arvfab

Muddasar

Veteran
22 Jun 2022
1,633
2,191
So 86/87/83 metacritic scores for the 3 main entries, Resistance FoM selling 2+ mio. as a launch game (and new IP) and getting 2 sequels + 2 portable entries is not a huge success...

Not to forget Spyro was also Insomniacs creation.

Spiderman was nowhere until Insomniac took the helm.

Another troll thread.

Notice all related to Sony or it's developers/games.

I mean at least be fair. Microsoft and it's developers are the ones with issues right now but no thread to be seen anywhere.
 

Yurinka

Veteran
VIP
21 Jun 2022
6,064
5,238
The Resistance series wasn't a huge success either. It's pretty much Spyro 25 years ago and Ratchet & Clank 20 years ago.
For over 15 years now they are struggling to make their own successful IP.

Guerrilla managed it with Horizon.
Sucker Punch finally did with with Ghost of Tsushima.
Naughty Dog keeps doing it with Uncharted and TLOU.

Insomniac though... decided to work on old Marvel IPs because they can't make their own successful IPs anymore.
If it wasn't a big success, why Resistance has 5 games getting 4 of them a MC of over 80? It doesn't make sense.

In addition to Resistance these guys made Spyro, Ratchet and made the -pretty likely- biggest selling Spider-Man/superhero videogame. They also also made some new IP like Sunset Overdrive that didn't get a sequel pretty likely because after it they went back with Sony and got bought. They didn't make new IPs because they prefered to make Spider-Man, Ratchet games and a few experiments for VR.

Now they have a team working on Spideer-Man 2, other in Wolverine, a third who recently released a Ratchet game and probably some small one making VR experiments. I bet pretty likely their next game to be announced will be some PSVR2 stuff or a new IP.

If according to you they aren't a successful studio making new IPs then what happens with every single Microsoft studio including all the Zenimax ones? All of them must be a massive failure to you creating IPs because none of them have created more hit IPs than Insomniac.
 
Last edited:

nominedomine

Banned
8 Jul 2022
834
949
So 86/87/83 metacritic scores for the 3 main entries, Resistance FoM selling 2+ mio. as a launch game (and new IP) and getting 2 sequels + 2 portable entries is not a huge success...
Damn it, Sony just sitting on so many viable IPs, would love for Resistance to comeback in some way.

So basically, every game which Insomniac did without Sony was a flop. Interesting.

PS: The "Marvel Spider-Man" game IS a new IP. Yes, Spider-Man per se isn't, but this is a new story and reimagination of the characters. Nobody outside of Sony is allowed to continue this story and there is no connection to older games/movies/comics (in fact, it has it's own official comics and books).
Talk about a thread backfiring, in this thread we figured out that actually partnering with a competent publisher is key for new IPs to be successful and that makes Xbox and specially Phil Spencer look even worse by their lack of success creating new IPs in the past 15 years.
 

Muddasar

Veteran
22 Jun 2022
1,633
2,191
Damn it, Sony just sitting on so many viable IPs, would love for Resistance to comeback in some way.


Talk about a thread backfiring, in this thread we figured out that actually partnering with a competent publisher is key for new IPs to be successful and that makes Xbox and specially Phil Spencer look even worse by their lack of success creating new IPs in the past 15 years.

True to their nature, the OP is blaming Insomniac for Sunset Overdrives failure.

I guarantee you the game would have been a success on PS4. Heck they could release it now and it will outsell the Xbox version.

Reality is most third party games outside GTA, COD, FIFA fail on Microsoft consoles.

Reason why Sony has managed to strike so many exclusive deals even though Microsoft has more money. Bethesda made Ghostwire Tokyo, Deathloop exclusives. Even Starfield was going the same way until Microsoft gobbled Bethesda up.

Most third parties know where the gravy train is and with Gamepass even more exclusive deals will be signed with Sony.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.