Eight Days/ TheGetaway canceled?

[Red]

Sony cancels Eight Days and The Getaway

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that it has cancelled production on two PlayStation 3 titles that were in development at the Sony London Studio - Eight Days and The Getaway.

A statement from the Corporation read as follows: "It has been agreed that production of both Eight Days and The Getaway will cease immediately due to the redistribution of resources and budget.

"This decision was made following an internal review of all games and it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion.

"Worldwide Studios has a reputation for innovative and entertaining games, with titles such as LittleBigPlanet, SingStar,Buzz, EyeToy and Eye of Judgement, and will continue to push the boundaries on all PlayStation platforms."

More to follow.

I think don't believe the internet. :lol:

[masteratt]

Makes sense to me.

Getaway and Eight Days are something I can wait until the mid-late PS3 life cycle.

We don't need another 3rd person action game for now on the PS3 I don't think and these titles would have had to be done exceptionally well to please all concerned (Devs and consumers) where-as if they release it at a time when PS3 development is NOT as expensive and lots of DIFFERENT GENRE games are roaming the PS3, it won't be a big deal if they suck.

Overall I'm pleased with the decision.

[GTAce]

I bet those games will come out, the developement is paused, not cancelled.
Still strange because they revealed new infos a couple of weeks ago after a loooong period without any news and now this?
Hm...

[jaxmkii]

im not pleased... i wanted to see what a PS3 dedicated GTA might look like.

[NeoPlayStation]

Damn you, Sony! :(

[GTAce]

Damn the people who dont buy a PS3 and the games for it.
I think the reason why they paused the production is way worsier than the pause itself, budget problems.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

That's a shame.

[Rockmond]

Oh well...

[masteratt]

Damn the people who dont buy a PS3 and the games for it.
I think the reason why they paused the production is way worse than the pause itself, budget problems.

Yup, that got my alarms ringing too...
C'moooooooooooon Sony, hang in there.

[cliffbo]

i'm very disappointed, even if this is only a delay and not a true cancellation. lets hope that those titles that are going to get prioritised are equal too the expectation of the titles that have been cancelled/delayed

[tolkyn]

Dammit, Getaway was easily my most anticipated game. I do hope nothing happened to Heavy Rain, 'cause we haven't seen or heard from it for a very long time either, except for some extreme close up pictures.

[masteratt]

^
Expect some Heavy Rain details coming from the Paris GDC (June 23-24). Quantic Dream is is a keynote speaker and they will be there with a representative from SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe).

[dnpmakkah]

If you don't hear or see a game in a very very long time that means either its development isn't going too great or it's going to get cancelled. Oh and I doubt it's cancelled due to their tremendous first party titles next year as they say. lol

[tolkyn]

^ Joy:thumbl:

[Segitz]

nvm

[masteratt]

Really?

This line sums up Sony's press releases in a nutshell:
Worldwide Studios has a reputation for innovative and entertaining games...lol

[Viper]

If you don't hear or see a game in a very very long time that means either its development isn't going too great or it's going to get cancelled. Oh and I doubt it's cancelled due to their tremendous first party titles next year as they say. lol
Last generation I would have agreed with you but this generation high range budget games can take 2-3 years for planning and development.

Looks at FFXIII for instance.

[stuart_r]

I read somewhere that these games have been cancelled permanently :-( I think that the development of these titles was not going well and it was decided that the money could be better spent somewhere else.

Not so sad about the getaway but 8 days looked cool and they'd been working on technology for that game for some time :-(

Here's hoping they are going to be putting that money into a money hat and going to people to get some new exclusive ps3 games from other people

[cliffbo]

okay this is a long shot: could the money for these games be helping to form a new company by Insomniac that will become a first party developer for the PS3?

edit. there was also a rumour that Sony were going to buy a studio. could this be the perfect compromise?

[GTShotoKen]

I at least hope their technology doesn't go to waste.

[Rockmond]

^

Nice.

[EvilTaru]

Too long in development without anything being shown should have set off some alarm bells, I wonder why Phil didn't do anything about it. Yoshida is basically cleaning house at this point, after millions have been spent, SCEE needed to be more focused on delivering quality software internally outside of singstar.

[Domination]

I think don't believe the internet. :lol:

Hopefully production continues after other close to launch projects are taken care of. If not, the new guy that took Harrison's place needs to be strangled since 8 Days was one of those titles that I was most interested in.

[cliffbo]

Hopefully production continues after other close to launch projects are taken care of. If not, the new guy that took Harrison's place needs to be strangled since 8 Days was one of those titles that I was most interested in.

with cheese-wire!!!

[Nameless]

If there's any truth to this info it's very troubling IMO...
I thought Eight Days was far along in development and the developers planned to release new footage and info on the title. :huh:

Also, I think The Getaway was a decent selling IP from the PS2 so why would you completely cancel a well known IP for the next-gen console? I don't want to start the "sky is falling" theories, but I find it troubling if Sony starts slowing down 1st party development. We already know most 3rd party titles are multiplatform so we really need Sony to step up and help justify our PS3 purchase from a 1st party software perspective. I'm still waiting for a legitimate PS3 hit from a 1st party developer... The current hits have come from 2nd & 3rd party developers like Naughty Dog, Insomniac & Konami. The only 1st party hit I can think of quickly is GT5P and that's not a fully released title...
*I guess you could include MotorStorm & Heavenly Sword since they both went platinum in sales, but they both received mixed critical reviews…*

I just hope this is some typical internet bullshit, because the PS3 can't afford to lose any 1st party exclusives IMO.

[Z]

8 Days I can see, but The Getaway? guess it was costing way too much. I bet if other big first party projects sold well we would've still seen it. (damn you Lair!). on the good side, this means London Studio will have more time and resources for their other projects. Sony's UK studios have always been some of their best teams. hopefully, we'll get to see more classics from them. I think The Getaway would've been very very good, but I don't think sales would've made up for the time and cost anyway.
all in all, a good business decision.

[Fillibuster]

Dammit! I was really, really looking forward to Eight Days. This upsets me :(

[Fredag]

I have waited so hard. I need to morn this properly. I'm really sad right now.

Luckily, I just bought an imported Canadian whiskey today. It will come to good use now...
FUCK!
FUCK!
FUCK!

[Sephiroth_VII]

Uh. I don't see anything at all about this at the SCEE press site, nor in the blog. Could someone please post a source before taking this serious at all?

[EvilTaru]

If there's any truth to this info it's very troubling IMO...
I thought Eight Days was far along in development and the developers planned to release new footage and info on the title. :huh:

Also, I think The Getaway was a decent selling IP from the PS2 so why would you completely cancel a well known IP for the next-gen console? I don't want to start the "sky is falling" theories, but I find it troubling if Sony starts slowing down 1st party development. We already know most 3rd party titles are multiplatform so we really need Sony to step up and help justify our PS3 purchase from a 1st party software perspective. I'm still waiting for a legitimate PS3 hit from a 1st party developer... The current hits have come from 2nd & 3rd party developers like Naughty Dog, Insomniac & Konami. The only 1st party hit I can think of quickly is GT5P and that's not a fully released title...
*I guess you could include MotorStorm & Heavenly Sword since they both went platinum in sales, but they both received mixed critical reviews…*

I just hope this is some typical internet bullshit, because the PS3 can't afford to lose any 1st party exclusives IMO.

The thing is developers like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Santa Monica, Suckerpunch and Incog were under the care of SHUHEI YOSHIDA, and in the past few years they have delivered quality games. All those hits like Uncharted and Resistance and Warhawk? Yeah those were from Yoshida's branch of SCEWW. Basically Yoshida is just cleaning house right now on projects that have dragged on for too long, and sucking all the money away from titles that need the necessary resources. I wonder if Yoshida had been at the helm when Heavenly Sword was still in development whether it would have ended up a better game.

[EvilTaru]

Hopefully production continues after other close to launch projects are taken care of. If not, the new guy that took Harrison's place needs to be strangled since 8 Days was one of those titles that I was most interested in.

Yoshida's branch of SCEWW actually develop most of the great games like Uncharted, Warhawk and Resistance, he didn't kill God of War back when it was still a mess at the beginning, so for him to can 8 Days and Getaway both must have been huge money pits. If Harrison had run a tighter ship this wouldn't have happened.

[Matt]

As Seph said, there's actually no proof that this has happened, yet.

[stuart_r]

I've got this link not bad source

http://www.developmag.com/news/29919/London-Studios-big-budget-games-on-hold

[Sephiroth_VII]

Yes, yes, but it just quotes GI.biz as a source, and GI.biz quotes a SCEE press release which somehow fails to show up at the official press site!

I'm not saying this isn't true, just that we shouldn't automatically believe something with no official source.

[yoshaw]

Where's the original source to that quote? Not news sites but official sony press release on this. If there is none, don't believe this nonsense.

Viral marketing is quite popular with a certain console maker if I might need remind you all.[/Buraeu against agenda pushing]

[NickSCFC]

Meh, Getaway games have always been shit, 8 Days was nothing more than a bullshot demo either.

[julps31]

Eh.. E3 is comin up soon so the truth shall be known by then.

[Viper]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-cancels-eight-days-and-the-getaway

Canceled, not on hold.

[AC!D]

Sony Europe have definitley got to get their shit together.

Delays for singstar with false promises about the singstar store.

Waiting forever for Wipeout HD which is essentially just a remake of old tracks in HD.

Now they cancel two of my most anticipated games.

What exactly are they doing? only the new partnership with media molecule and the acqusition of Evolution studios are bearing anY fruit from Europe.

Oh wait i forgot about BUZZ OH JOY!

[Segitz]

I don't understand exactly, what's going on...

Those (beside KZ2) where the only hardcore games from SCEE basically (Wipeout not so much... I dunno) and now they are gone... What will there be in exchange? How far was development (if any??) and... why?

I find it strange and a bit "threatening"... or either PH just fucked everything up^^ I dunno

[AC!D]

I don't understand exactly, what's going on...

Those (beside KZ2) where the only hardcore games from SCEE basically (Wipeout not so much... I dunno) and now they are gone... What will there be in exchange? How far was development (if any??) and... why?

I find it strange and a bit "threatening"... or either PH just fucked everything up^^ I dunno

Personally i think David Reeves has to go. The only thing that ever comes out of his mouth are petty excuses as to why playstation content comes out late/Doesnt come out at all or is ridiculously overpriced for Europe
or why Europeans are better off without Backwards compatability was my favourite one from that horses arse. I dont know if he has any involvement with the Sony dev teams in Europe and if he doesnt then the jackass that does also needs to be replaced.

[masteratt]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-cancels-eight-days-and-the-getaway

Canceled, not on hold.

Okay NOW I'm pissed off!
Urgh.

People start buying 1st party games FFS!
This is a sad time for Sony fans when the most anticipated games are cancelled due to budget problems :(
It really doesn't feel nice....*sigh* :(

[EvilTaru]

I don't understand exactly, what's going on...

Those (beside KZ2) where the only hardcore games from SCEE basically (Wipeout not so much... I dunno) and now they are gone... What will there be in exchange? How far was development (if any??) and... why?

I find it strange and a bit "threatening"... or either PH just fucked everything up^^ I dunno

The problem with SCEE is that their teams aren't particularly great at gameplay design, and they don't deliver on-time either for the most part, obviously Evolution is the exception but they were acquired recently and aside from that the Singstar team and even then that was delayed, a lot of time you have teams with a great ideas but when it comes to implementing ideas and actually creating content so you can have a game, these people run into problems.

I think there are still a bunch of Phil's legacy problems that Yoshida will have to clean up, if you look at a team like Naughty Dog, it's very, very lean. Even Insomniac, you have 100+ people but they're cranking out games regularly, very productive, those should be the model on how teams should be based on. The point is they can't afford to fund money pits when there are other developers who need the money to get their games out even if the folks at London Studios aren't in a hurry to.

[EvilTaru]

Personally i think David Reeves has to go. The only thing that ever comes out of his mouth are petty excuses as to why playstation content comes out late/Doesnt come out at all or is ridiculously overpriced for Europe
or why Europeans are better off without Backwards compatability was my favourite one from that horses arse. I dont know if he has any involvement with the Sony dev teams in Europe and if he doesnt then the jackass that does also needs to be replaced.

This has nothing to do with David Reeves, this has to do with Phil Harrison and Jamie McDonald, both of whom were ultimately responsible for what essentially has been a continuing inability to produce AAA content on a regular basis at SCEE internal development.

[curryking1]

The Getaway games, even with not the best games from the past, were at least respectable selling products. It is a shame it is cancelled in early development, but at least it wasn't later in dev. Eight Days on the other hand... that may have been the best first party retail-wise since Resistance so I am lost to why it should be canned.

Aside - I still can't even believe Sony partnered with them. Seriously, Factor 5 and Ninja Theory? What the ***k is that about. I mean seriously, Ninja Theory? Wtf was Phil thinking? I frigging love the man but for the love of God!!! Ninja Theory and Factor 5!? ***K!?!?!?

Worst Case Scenarios - Yoshida is just really stupid or he's as stuck up and with a personal agenda against Phil Harrison or the Western dominated Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide.

If development, exposure and output of other first party titles like Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, or anything else for this year doesn't pick up... then that will definitely assure us we are in that worst case scenario.

Something tangible, anything tangible and great, must happen for SCEWW and the PS3 to convince me Yoshida has done something good for the PS3. If nothing happens however we are exclusively witnessing the downsizing of SCEWW and not it's streamlining to be more effective.

For the record however, I do think this may be the right way to go. Maybe Yoshida will have a better policy of quality control and delivering particular, individual, and popular products. And more importantly at regular intervals and at times when they are needed. That is something Phil Harrison really was not able to do with the PS3 first party software.


This has nothing to do with David Reeves, this has to do with Phil Harrison and Jamie McDonald, both of whom were ultimately responsible for what essentially has been a continuing inability to produce AAA content on a regular basis at SCEE internal development.

Good call. To others, don't go pointing fingers at the wrong people. Reeves and such may not be popular among the press and public but their designation is not for SCEWW at all.

[EvilTaru]

The problem with Factor 5 was that there wasn't a producer from Sony's side, Factor 5 has its own in-house producer, and probably there just wasn't enough oversight in terms of development, because if Lair was shown to people like Shuhei and Allan Becker, there was NO WAY they would approve it, maybe when they finally saw it, it was already too late. Phil was always there at these events when they demoed Lair, I was just surprised that Phil didn't do anything about it.

Heavenly Sword was just great promise and not so great execution, they had a great concept, a lot of money went into bumping up that production value, they even had Cambridge helping them out to finish up the game, but nobody went to Tameem and the folks at NT and tell them that they need to make a better GAME with more things to do than just combat, and if they were doing combat it needed to have more depth, it was a problem with game design that was not addressed, you can totally tell from all the developer interviews that people like Tameem were overly focused on production value and cinematic quality of the presentation rather than WHAT GAMEPLAY DESIGN IS ACTUALLY INTERESTING AND COMPELLING FOR THE PLAYER.

London Studios, especially Team Soho has always been a problem FOR YEARS in terms of its inability to get games out that would garner at least some critical acclaim, even if the games don't sell you would look at the games and think those were great games, just poorly marketed, which was not the case, the SCEE side never addressed that problem, and Jamie McDonald and Phil Harrison were in charge of that, after the departure of director Brandon McNamara, who didn't exactly get along with Phil at all whatsoever, they put Naresh Hirani in charge, maybe Naresh could have use more talent, but it seemed like Hirani had even less to work with for the getaway sequel, a ton of reused assets, probably a smaller team, and they were supposed to build a game in the same genre as GTA? Like WTF.

[Z]

The problem with SCEE is that their teams aren't particularly great at gameplay design, and they don't deliver on-time either for the most part, obviously Evolution is the exception but they were acquired recently and aside from that the Singstar team and even then that was delayed, a lot of time you have teams with a great ideas but when it comes to implementing ideas and actually creating content so you can have a game, these people run into problems.


I feel like the reason behind that is the way Sony is working here is focusing on the tech side. by that I mean they hire brilliant technicians and tool creators. and though these people are great at programing, that doesn't make them good game designers. I feel this is the result of Sony's Computer and electronics devisions' mindset.

perhaps there may still be good from the sales hit of these huge budget game projects. they'll shake things up and make them see what is the problem and what they should be focusing on just as seriously- even if it is the hard way to learn.

[Segitz]

Sony Europe needs a guy like Kojima or Miamoto (or whatever you spell it)...

The good selling games from Europe (Singstar or Buzz for example) don't need a killer game designer... anyone can do that^^

I also think, if KZ2 didn't have that much of a buzz behind it, it would have been canned also!

And to Mr. Reese... He isn't a gamer, and it shows... and this is a problem for us (Europeans). The constant delay of ANYTHING gamewise, be it games, PSN content or the Dualshock pisses gamers off. We want stuff in a timely manner. Microsoft shows how this can be done, yet Sony doesn't even really try. Not even Sonys first party games come hither on day one (ok, most games only got delayed by weeks, not months or even years).

Why in hell was Puzzle Fighter delayed half a f*cking year?
Why isn't Echochrome here (not released today either)?
Where's the Dual Shock 3, that was announced for spring (Spring is over in 16 days btw.)?

And the biggest miss of all... where are the PS1 games? (same goes for the US on that front) Japan gets new games nearly twice a week!

Sony Pictures releases movies on a timely manner here to, why can't SCEE do the same with their games? This just doesn't make any sense to me. Even Koji Pro turned the rudder and now delivers MGS4 worldwide on the same day!

[curryking1]

The problem with Factor 5 was that there wasn't a producer from Sony's side

True say. Something seriously wrong happened there. Really, really wrong and no one looked in fast enough it seems.

I also think, if KZ2 didn't have that much of a buzz behind it, it would have been canned also!

Killzone 2 would've been canned for sure. Phil Harrison is lucky the first was able to sustain so many sales over it's lifetime.

And yes, Sony Pictures Entertainment is currently completely embarassing Sony Computer Entertainment. There's no need to go further than that. That's just the flat out truth.

Sony Europe needs a guy like Kojima or Miamoto (or whatever you spell it)...

Pretty much. Miyamoto is a mountain of fun and gold that never stops growing. SCE may not need a Miyamoto (Miyamoto is like an all-in-one guarantee of hawtness) but SCE certainly needs to hang onto creative directors that have made successful games in the past. Someone needs to frigging see what's going to happen before it does now. Hopefully Yoshida can succeed where Phil Harrison obviously failed - keeping high profile directors and producers as well as recruiting new ones.

[Viper]

The problem with Factor 5 was that there wasn't a producer from Sony's side, Factor 5 has its own in-house producer, and probably there just wasn't enough oversight in terms of development, because if Lair was shown to people like Shuhei and Allan Becker, there was NO WAY they would approve it, maybe when they finally saw it, it was already too late. Phil was always there at these events when they demoed Lair, I was just surprised that Phil didn't do anything about it.

If that were the issue than past Factor 5 titles would have had serious problems too. Time and the demand for 6ax use were the biggest problems, not some shoddy in-house QA. Factor 5 doesn't need their hand held to make a good game.

[AC!D]

I think we can all agree on one thing and that is weather it be the retail, online, distribution, pricing, service delivery or game development side of Sony Europe there needs to be big changes if they want to keep there current market share there.

Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog and other third parties like Insomniac put Team Soho, Team London and the rest to shame. It would also help if they were a bit more open with gamers like the Sony Amercia blog is in their region.

[section]

I know they have used some of the Getaway's Soho captures in GT5 but to sack the whole darn thing altogether, wow...

Somehow I can now understand why they got rid of Phil. The businessmen in Japan didn't like him giving too much freedom, time and resources for his developers. Wasn't this Brandon McNamara (sp) dude sacked from team Soho back in the days because he couldn't deliver in time? Now they did the same to Harrison and a couple of big titles. Sucks to work for SCEE atm.

[Domination]

Yoshida's branch of SCEWW actually develop most of the great games like Uncharted, Warhawk and Resistance, he didn't kill God of War back when it was still a mess at the beginning, so for him to can 8 Days and Getaway both must have been huge money pits. If Harrison had run a tighter ship this wouldn't have happened.


If that's true, then I retract anything negative I ever said about this guy. To this very day, Warhawk is still my number one title of the many I've purchased thus far for this gen's PlayStation.

I remember when Warhawk was in the very pit and how developers didn't know where to take the project as far as direction, not to mention the developer studio losing most of their developers in mid production. But then it ended up as the most intense experience I've had in a long, long time regarless of the fact that it's a multi-player only title.

[Leedogg]

I can't believe The Getaway is cancelled. It looked amazing, especially considering the early images were running on the cell without the rsx help at all.

[EvilTaru]

Pretty much. Miyamoto is a mountain of fun and gold that never stops growing. SCE may not need a Miyamoto (Miyamoto is like an all-in-one guarantee of hawtness) but SCE certainly needs to hang onto creative directors that have made successful games in the past. Someone needs to frigging see what's going to happen before it does now. Hopefully Yoshida can succeed where Phil Harrison obviously failed - keeping high profile directors and producers as well as recruiting new ones.

Frankly I do NOT want to see someone like Miyamoto at Sony, why? Because most of Sony's studios are very independently minded, they can't take an overlord unlike Nintendo where, as talented as Eiji Aunoma is, he's basically content with making the same Zelda game year after year, Miyamoto can basically boss him around and get whatever MIYAMOTO wants, you put Miyamoto in a position where he constantly makes demands on how things have to be implemented according to how MIYAMOTO sees it, you'll see a MASSIVE exodus from every Sony studio, especially the good ones.

They let Cory Barlog have a lot of decision-making power at Santa Monica and they lost two combat leads and a number of people from the art team, and Barlog ended up having to leave in the end, just imagine having someone like Miyamoto there who would basically tell people how to make games at EVERY STUDIO. Studios like Naughty Dog basically operates on its own, they can make great games on their own and doesn't need much oversight, let alone some overlord like Miyamoto. Can you imagine a team like Santa Monica or Naughty Dog forced to make the same Mario Party game year after year? That would drive them crazy LOL.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/EvilTaru/Indifferent2.gif

[EvilTaru]

I know they have used some of the Getaway's Soho captures in GT5 but to sack the whole darn thing altogether, wow...

Somehow I can now understand why they got rid of Phil. The businessmen in Japan didn't like him giving too much freedom, time and resources for his developers. Wasn't this Brandon McNamara (sp) dude sacked from team Soho back in the days because he couldn't deliver in time? Now they did the same to Harrison and a couple of big titles. Sucks to work for SCEE atm.

Phil was THE BOSS of the folks at Sony Japan game development, PHIL has the power to dictate to Sony Japan what he needs from them, and if he couldn't do it alone, he needed to get Kaz to back him up, then THAT'S what he needed to do. It was about communicating your goals and getting people on board, Phil couldn't manage to do that. If you can't get your boss to back you up and make changes, whose fault is that?

McNamara was the director of the Getaway, I don't think he got sacked, he left to start his own studio in Australia after the first game, he and Phil really didn't get along, and maybe that's why Team Bondi signed on with SCEA instead of SCEE for LA Noire, probably to avoid having to work with Phil, who would have guessed Phil would be in charge of SCEWW. Yeah McNamara obviously had trouble with delivering on milestones and I guess Phil decided not to fund LA Noire, it was strange though how Getaway and Eight Days kept getting funded when they haven't really shown anything.

And yes, Team Soho delivered a subpar game, not sure how it was better to have your lead programmer taking the helm of a smaller team making the sequel though, that's not going to solve the problem. Phil and Jamie McDonald were in charge of SCEE game development at the time, basically SCEE couldn't manage to get a single quality FRANCHISE out of London or Cambridge, the only thing that did come out was Eyetoy which was really Richard Marks' thing, and Singstar, which had nothing to do with Team Soho.

Phil bitched about getting his hands tied, but the first thing Yoshida came in was he saw a couple of money pit projects and HE JUST CANNED THEM, so it's not like being the boss at SCEWW doesn't come with any power, CLEARLY Yoshida has the backing of Kaz.

[EvilTaru]

If that were the issue than past Factor 5 titles would have had serious problems too. Time and the demand for 6ax use were the biggest problems, not some shoddy in-house QA. Factor 5 doesn't need their hand held to make a good game.

Did you actually LIKE playing those Rogue Squadron games? I didn't. Maybe that kind of "protect the convoy", "bombing runs", "destroy enemy frigates" bullshit fits in the Star Wars universe, hey x-wing was fun back a DECADE ago, but in 2007 I expected something a little bit different. Let's not pretend Rogue Squadron would make a good game today, it wouldn't, it would be fucking getting 5s and 6s out of 10, those were SHIT MISSION DESIGNS, Factor 5 should be ASHAMED they're even trying to pull that stunt.

They thought they could get away with making a bad game as long as it has nice graphics, they thought WRONG, and you can't blame Factor 5 making a bad game on "the need to use motion control", that wasn't the problem.

I don't mean any offense, it's just strange how everytime Lair was mentioned as a shit game, somehow people can blame that on Sony for forcing sixaxis control when the problem was game and mission design and not simply control implementation.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/EvilTaru/Indifferent2.gif

[curryking1]

Frankly I do NOT want to see someone like Miyamoto at Sony, why? Because most of Sony's studios are very independently minded, they can't take an overlord unlike Nintendo where, as talented as Eiji Aunoma is, he's basically content with making the same Zelda game year after year, Miyamoto can basically boss him around and get whatever MIYAMOTO wants, you put Miyamoto in a position where he constantly makes demands on how things have to be implemented according to how MIYAMOTO sees it, you'll see a MASSIVE exodus from every Sony studio, especially the good ones.


Lol, it was just a point of reference. Nintendo is doing well and it was just to say 'at least they are getting stuff out properly, on time, and getting sales.'

We still just need someone or a few good pick ups somehow for creative directors and quality assurance and regular reports to guys like Yoshida. Maybe Yoshida is already taking care of that with regular reports or something, who knows.

Anyway though, this is not unlike the skill it takes for teams like the Detroit Red Wings to pick up absolute gems of role players and above average players like they end up getting out of 3rd, 4th, and 5th rounds. And no wonder they are winners. Their (Swedish?) scout is nothing short of the sharpest managing eye in hockey (apparently, I don't watch hockey at all closely).

Somehow the talent not only needs to be brought in but it has to be kept. And obviously it's easy to say something like this and millions of times harder to do in practice.

In many ways thinking about this now Phil Harrison has been failing for the past few years, regardless of his great contributions of sellable titles and otherwise that spanned the PS1 and PS2. It seems even like the whole PS3 production spanning hardware and software needed to realise the innovation this generation needed to be phased completely to a later date and simply delivering yesterday's stuff would've been a more effective plan (even if it's one that would suck for us fans).

[Segitz]

Frankly I do NOT want to see someone like Miyamoto at Sony, why? Because most of Sony's studios are very independently minded, they can't take an overlord unlike Nintendo where, as talented as Eiji Aunoma is, he's basically content with making the same Zelda game year after year, Miyamoto can basically boss him around and get whatever MIYAMOTO wants, you put Miyamoto in a position where he constantly makes demands on how things have to be implemented according to how MIYAMOTO sees it, you'll see a MASSIVE exodus from every Sony studio, especially the good ones.

Hm, I said someone "like" Miyamoto or Kojima... someone who can do game design... not exactly that person, which would ruin everything (he is a japanese in a japanese company... it just would not work in Europe).

Sony should buy Piranha Bytes (the devs of the Gothic series) and let them make a fine ass WRPG :D (which would also be delayed three times, but would rake in cash like a bitch on fire!)

[Nameless]

I did not know we had so many people on our forum working for Sony and part of closed door discussions with corporate executives... ;)

[EvilTaru]

Hm, I said someone "like" Miyamoto or Kojima... someone who can do game design... not exactly that person, which would ruin everything (he is a japanese in a japanese company... it just would not work in Europe).

Sony should buy Piranha Bytes (the devs of the Gothic series) and let them make a fine ass WRPG :D (which would also be delayed three times, but would rake in cash like a bitch on fire!)

They do have external, senior game designers/creative directors at Sony Santa Monica who work with in-house teams offering design help on projects. They just don't have that one overlord figure who can basically dictate how exactly things need to be designed.

[curryking1]

^^Pfft, I gave Ken Kutaragi his job man.

[Nameless]

I did not know we had so many people on our forum working for Sony and part of closed door discussions with corporate executives... ;)

[Segitz]

They do have external, senior game designers/creative directors at Sony Santa Monica who work with in-house teams offering design help on projects. They just don't have that one overlord figure who can basically dictate how exactly things need to be designed.

Well, if they have those guys, why don't they put them to good use in Europe?

I dunno, I haven't really paid attention to gaming back when PS2 was king, so my knowledge is limited, but from what I can see, those big big games out of Europe (Getaway etc.) all were limited not by graphics or bugs, but by game design, which is rather sad, since it usually is not a limit of a console, but of the designers.

[Raijin]

IMO, if those games were turning out to be turds, i think it was the right decision to take. Sony cant afford to have new disasters like Lair to be released. Save these resources for somewhere else.

[cliffbo]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-cancels-eight-days-and-the-getaway

Canceled, not on hold.

this is a stupid decision! i know that hard decisions have to be made, but to release the information now just when MGS is about to be released, gives naysayers mud to sling in our finest hour

[dnpmakkah]

this is a stupid decision! i know that hard decisions have to be made, but to release the information now just when MGS is about to be released, gives naysayers mud to sling in our finest hourActually now isn't such a bad time to release this kind of information. With MGS4 around the corner most people are talking about that game rather than discussing the cancellation of these games. Secondly even on a site like Teamxbox not a lot of the people care to sling mud about this news. Outside of PS3 owners it didn't seem like many others cared much for these two titles. Now if Sony cancels Killzone and/or Home then you'll be seeing tons of mud being flung everywhere.

[Viper]

Dnp...., has a point. The waves made by this news are being canceled out by the hype of MGS4. If this were released during a slow news period, the wave effect would be much more painful,

As for the cancellations themselves, who knows why specifically. Budgets and quality are the two typical reasons so let's assume it was one of them which means it's a good thing, not a bad thing.

My biggest issue with it would be on the developers themselves. They've spent the better part of the past two years working on them only to be canceled and working on possibly nothing at all right now. THAT's not cool.

[Red_Eyes]

Dnp...., has a point. The waves made by this news are being canceled out by the hype of MGS4. If this were released during a slow news period, the wave effect would be much more painful,

As for the cancellations themselves, who knows why specifically. Budgets and quality are the two typical reasons so let's assume it was one of them which means it's a good thing, not a bad thing.

My biggest issue with it would be on the developers themselves. They've spent the better part of the past two years working on them only to be canceled and working on possibly nothing at all right now. THAT's not cool.

Those devs are not working on nothing at all. They've been move into other studios to help those studios complete their games faster.

[Viper]

What studios? Did they get flown into another global studio or does that that specific studio have more than those projects running?

[Segitz]

What studios? Did they get flown into another global studio or does that that specific studio have more than those projects running?

Afaik, they helped with games like Heavenly Sword et al... (there were other games too, many 3rd party projects too)

[AC!D]

Its even worse when you consider that its 3 games in actual fact and not just the 2 mentioned cause Sony did not keep the Formula 1 license.

[EvilTaru]

Its even worse when you consider that its 3 games in actual fact and not just the 2 mentioned cause Sony did not keep the Formula 1 license.

What did you expect Sony to do? F1 games don't sell enough to justify the expensive license, it's a money-losing proposition, Liverpool is better off working on something that can be profitable so the team can receive a nice bonus.

[EvilTaru]

Well, if they have those guys, why don't they put them to good use in Europe?

I dunno, I haven't really paid attention to gaming back when PS2 was king, so my knowledge is limited, but from what I can see, those big big games out of Europe (Getaway etc.) all were limited not by graphics or bugs, but by game design, which is rather sad, since it usually is not a limit of a console, but of the designers.

Frankly I'm not sure how London Studios could have handled BOTH Eight Days AND Getaway, even if the two games were being staggered in terms of production, either Getaway or Eight Days would be a very large project, they need ONE solid team working on something that will establish a lasting IP, if they need to hire better designers, that's what they would have to do, they showed the target renders back in 06 and it's been at least two years, yet they had nothing to show for either of the games, so I'm not sure what would justify SCEWW to continue funding either of these projects. I don't know, it just seems like London Studios outside of the Singstar Team has always been kind of a mess.

[EvilTaru]

Those devs are not working on nothing at all. They've been move into other studios to help those studios complete their games faster.

They have people working at ATG and some of them are in London and some are in Cambridge but it's not like London Studios is kind of a studio that goes around fixing other people's crap, and it shouldn't be anyway, they should be developing games and more importantly, GETTING THEM OUT. You don't devote an entire studio to "helping out third-party" and I don't think that's what they're doing, it's not like the studio would get paid by third-party for the help, at this point I think it's kind of stupid for Sony as a developer/publisher not to concentrate on their own IPs.

Frankly if Ninja Theory had problems with development they should have hired more people to strengthen their team and not enlist the help of Sony Cambridge, Sony Cambridge should be making their own games.

[Viper]

Oh, so THOSE were the Sony ninjas they joked about?

[AC!D]

What did you expect Sony to do? F1 games don't sell enough to justify the expensive license, it's a money-losing proposition, Liverpool is better off working on something that can be profitable so the team can receive a nice bonus.

I think you missed my point! My point was what the hell are Sony London and Liverpool doing since they are not developing those three games? Allocating resources to what? What did they spend 3 years doing besides pre renders and getting our hopes up? Absolutley nothing even singstar was a mess upon release and Wipeout HD is constantly delayed for what is essentially a remake in HD. Like i said before there are HUGE problems with regards to how Sony Europe functions from production to distribution and this needs to be sorted out because not even Sony Fanboys will accept this BS blindly for much longer.

[Z]

management, management, management! that is the vital key aspect for anything to run and perform properly. I don't know how much this applies, but they should take note of insomniac. those people have been releasing AAA project on an annual bases for years now. plus, they aren't very big in numbers and they are the only game dev to be listed on the list of top places to work for in America twice or thrice is it now?

hopefully, the new people in charge can steer the huge vessel back on course. Sony has the biggest and most capability for making games of any of the three console owners. they also rank among the biggest and most technically capable over all in the entire industry.

[Red_Eyes]

What studios? Did they get flown into another global studio or does that that specific studio have more than those projects running?
Not specifically other studios. But helping Sony with whatever else Sony needs to get done.
Allocating resources to what?
Home? XMB-in-Game? The PSN? Killzone? Motorstorm? The next Socom? etc?...

Without enough budget and resources, Sony had no choice but to cancel the Getaway and 8 Eights and reshuffle these devs and resources around to help with stuff like Home, so that these things can come out faster, instead of delays after delays.

They have people working at ATG and some of them are in London and some are in Cambridge but it's not like London Studios is kind of a studio that goes around fixing other people's crap...It's not.
Oh, so THOSE were the Sony ninjas they joked about?
Probably not. But some of their technologies were by used by other Sony devs.

[AC!D]

Home? XMB-in-Game? The PSN? Killzone? Motorstorm? The next Socom? etc?...

Without enough budget and resources, Sony had no choice but to cancel the Getaway and 8 Eights and reshuffle these devs and resources around to help with stuff like Home, so that these things can come out faster, instead of delays after delays.

From what i understand Killzone has a 130 man strong dev team in Holland better known as Guerrila so i doubt it. Evolution was just purchased by Sony so unless they fired all the ppl working on the first Motorstorm i cant see why they would need more resources bar maybe hiring a few extra bodies. Socom is being made by a third party dev whos name i forget under the supervision of Zipper who are making the single player Socom so i doubt they have anything to do with this game either apart from sharing tech and resources.

As for home and XMB i have no idea who is working on that but i would guess that its a combined Sony worldwide studios effort wich is probably mostly based in Japan since everything gets released there first.

Again i cant see how anyone including you can defend them for whats essentially been a waste of three years and like Z says i hope these changes will help and that managment has changed for the better but that still doesnt take away my personal dissapointment at being let down again. Suddenly Aaron Greenburgs rants from MS seem to make more and more sense these days ( some of it anyway ).

From the retail, online and distribution side i hope Reeves gets his ass handed to him also cause unlike most of you i wont be playing MGS with rumble next week ( i have my reasons for not wanting to import which i wont go into here) or enjoying a third of the content on PSN you guys enjoy in the NTSC territories.

[cliffbo]

well as i said before, i'm disappointed, but there must be some great titles out there that we don't know about yet. perhaps when these see the light of day, this decision will make more sense, until then though, i grieve

[Red_Eyes]

Again i cant see how anyone including you can defend them for whats essentially been a waste of three years...
Yes. Exactly. A waste of three years. That's why Sony canceled them. Or do you want Sony to let them waster three more years? What Sony did, Sony had to: Reallocate resources so that other games and stuff can come out faster. Like Home. Or would you rather that Sony wasted another 3 years with delays after delays of everything? Yeah, I am disappointed that Getaway was canceled too. But I rather have it that stuff comes out in time instead of waiting for delays after delays. And hopefully, Sony can revive Getaway after the other stuffs come out.

[AC!D]

Yes. Exactly. A waste of three years. That's why Sony canceled them. Or do you want Sony to let them waster three more years? What Sony did, Sony had to: Reallocate resources so that other games and stuff can come out faster. Like Home. Or would you rather that Sony wasted another 3 years with delays after delays of everything? Yeah, I am disappointed that Getaway was canceled too. But I rather have it that stuff comes out in time instead of waiting for delays after delays. And hopefully, Sony can revive Getaway after the other stuffs come out.

If it takes three years for Sony to find a problem within their organization then i fear for the playstation Brand or for any company for that matter so your argument goes out the window there cause this should have been identified earlier and rectified then intead of stringing us along yet again with great pre renders of games that will probably never see the light of day now. Raising my hopes and many others and crushing them with a sledgehammer.

Ofcourse its good IF and this is a big IF they have rectified the problem which you and I assume and allocated these resources to push out existing projects quicker or start on new IPS's then its great but alas we will never know because unlike Sony America we dont have a blog to address our concerns and keep the lines of communication open and transparent with its fans.

Lastly if i were you i wouldnt raise my hopes and expect Sony projects to come out any quicker judging by Sony's track record based on this news.

[curryking1]

If it takes three years for Sony to find a problem within their organization then i fear for the playstation Brand or for any company for that matter so your argument goes out the window there cause this should have been identified earlier and rectified...

That's why the changed leadership you dope. Yoshida has been put there to not repeat the mistakes of Phil Harrison.

Just FYI, people can't go back in time. It's the same thing to say why hasn't General Motors started switching to more fuel efficient cars 10 years ago?

[AC!D]

That's why the changed leadership you dope. Yoshida has been put there to not repeat the mistakes of Phil Harrison.

Just FYI, people can't go back in time. It's the same thing to say why hasn't General Motors started switching to more fuel efficient cars 10 years ago?

In business three years is a long time you DOPE!!!!! Most businesses dont last three years you DOPE!!!I know time machines dont exist you DOPE!!!!! but dissapointment and broken promises remain and in your example the oil crisis will just continue to escalate and please lets not start on the politics again of which we obviously have differing views of the world. If you dont like my posts put me on your ignore list.

Also dont make assumptions because managment was changed things will get better cause everytime Sony take a step forward they seem to take one back so im sorry if i cant be as optimistic as you and i would prefer as many ppl as possible to voice their dissapointment at Sony Europe in particular so that we may see changes for the better. Thats the only way our gaming world will ever change instead of just blindly accepting all their stuff ups.
We cant change the past but we sure as hell can try and change the future and we do so with action rather than inaction in the present.

[cliffbo]

We cant change the past but we sure as hell can try and change the future and we do so with action rather than inaction in the present.

can't disagree with that! good post

[curryking1]

Acid, are you on crack or something? Don't take it personally.

I am more pessimistic about Yoshida than you are imagining, I'm not the one making any assumptions. I believe I'd probably be the one aside from EvilTaru to question him the most. I never even claimed they took a step forward. Learn how to read. The only thing I claimed is that they made a change to Phil Harrison who was obviously not working out with SCEWW.

Chill. Only on the internet can someone agree with you yet think you are an idiot for disagreeing with them. Seriously, learn how to read and keep a check on your little web tantrums.

[Segitz]

Suddenly Aaron Greenburgs rants from MS seem to make more and more sense these days ( some of it anyway ).

Greenberg, afaik...

but don't even get me started on that guy. His hyperboles and whatnot REALLY pissed me off. He states stuff about Sony, yet is really good at ignoring his own system with MUCH bigger problems.

The delay of home might have pissed many people off... But in the end, a buggy Home might have cost them MUCH more, thus delaying it was the best option.

And Greenberg stating stuff like the movie store... Since until now, this store is basically US only on the 360 (yes, there is one in Europe too, but the content is old crap, from what I read and nothing new is added). I am sure, MS only launched it already, because they wanted to be first, not because it was ready (same with the system), as it IS an unfinished piece of bull.

He also was that asshole who "spun" the low 360 sales back in the day and argued, that they were "supply constrained"... What a load of bullshit.

And saying "we will ship Gears 2 when KZ2 (their first game) isn't even out"... Yeah right... Outsourcing to Epic, which already had a nearly finished engine compared to a game, that was done internally from scratch. (whereas Insomniac will ship its 3rd freaking game when R2 hits, bitch!)

"Quotes" come from here (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=138470)

[Red_Eyes]

The point, with all these delays and problems, it's a good thing that Sony finally put in some new leadership, and reallocate resources to the appropriate projects. Now, we don't know if this is going to be good or not. But hopefully, it'll all be for the better. I mean, if the ways things have been for the last tow years isn't working out, then it's time to change it. And if you don't like Sony's choices, you gotta voice it out so Sony understands.

[cliffbo]

The point, with all these delays and problems, it's a good thing that Sony finally put in some new leadership, and reallocate resources to the appropriate projects. Now, we don't know if this is going to be good or not. But hopefully, it'll all be for the better. I mean, if the ways things have been for the last tow years isn't working out, then it's time to change it. And if you don't like Sony's choices, you gotta voice it out so Sony understands.

i sit in both camps at the moment... i am disappointed that these games have been canned, but i am waiting to see which other games get the extra cash. if these games turn out to be surprises/ambitious, then i will be happy. time will tell

[EvilTaru]

If it takes three years for Sony to find a problem within their organization then i fear for the playstation Brand or for any company for that matter so your argument goes out the window there cause this should have been identified earlier and rectified then intead of stringing us along yet again with great pre renders of games that will probably never see the light of day now. Raising my hopes and many others and crushing them with a sledgehammer.

Ofcourse its good IF and this is a big IF they have rectified the problem which you and I assume and allocated these resources to push out existing projects quicker or start on new IPS's then its great but alas we will never know because unlike Sony America we dont have a blog to address our concerns and keep the lines of communication open and transparent with its fans.

Lastly if i were you i wouldnt raise my hopes and expect Sony projects to come out any quicker judging by Sony's track record based on this news.

It's a little difficult for Kaz to take charge of the Playstation division and effect changes right away, and it isn't consistent with Sony being a Japanese company for Kaz to just say, "Phil, you're a nice spokesman but you're not doing such a good job so you're fired", but obviously now with Phil's departure, Yoshida can step in and make some much needed changes that Phil didn't make during all that time he was in charge first at SCEE and later as President of SCEWW. Yoshida has been working with Kaz for a long time and he's the right man for the job and it's long overdue, he's got a good record of actually getting great games out, cancelling Getaway and Eight Days wouldn't happen if even one of these games were promising and progressing smoothly, and has a chance of coming out sometime next year.

Maybe London Studios is working on something more viable than Getaway and Eight Days that actually needs more manpower. Yoshida has built a great track-record of DELIVERING great games at SCEA, one look at the NA PS3 line-up and it's not hard to notice great games like Uncharted, Resistance, Ratchet, Warhawk and MLB The Show 08, and not this show-and-tell that Phil was so great at, I'm sure he wanted HOME to be polished and out as soon as possible and obviously they need people in order to do that. Getaway and Eight Days were simply not working out, I'm not sure what you want them to do, keep throwing money and people at it, money and people that can be working on other projects at London Studios that can result in great games that you can play?

[AC!D]

Acid, are you on crack or something? Don't take it personally.

I am more pessimistic about Yoshida than you are imagining, I'm not the one making any assumptions. I believe I'd probably be the one aside from EvilTaru to question him the most. I never even claimed they took a step forward. Learn how to read. The only thing I claimed is that they made a change to Phil Harrison who was obviously not working out with SCEWW.

Chill. Only on the internet can someone agree with you yet think you are an idiot for disagreeing with them. Seriously, learn how to read and keep a check on your little web tantrums.

Im sorry first im a dope, i cant read and now im on crack wow you are so diplomatic. Judging by your post quoting my comments which i will requote below.

That's why the changed leadership you dope. Yoshida has been put there to not repeat the mistakes of Phil Harrison.

Just FYI, people can't go back in time. It's the same thing to say why hasn't General Motors started switching to more fuel efficient cars 10 years ago?

I didnt even mention a Yoshida so dont know where you come up with that. Then Your talking about Yoshida in your post and yet i see no mention about your pessimism about Yoshida in this quote oh and im still missing the part where you agree with me cause im trying to voice my concerns and your trying to bury them in the past as if we should move on cause there is nothing we can do about it well i disagree and i think Sony can do something to not let all the pre production go to waste like G ummmm off the top of my head hire a third party to do it or give it to Sony America/Japan/India devs etc team. Let me guess i was supposed catch up to your level of understanding of yourself by reading every single one of your previous posts so my feeble little mind can understand you better right? Well sorry i only reply to what you posted to me and frankly couldnt care enough about you to go read the rest of your posts so make your points clear next time unless this is just a backtrack on your part which it clearly seems it is.

Finally maybe when you learn to post to ppl in a respectful way and not take shots at every single post then ill stop my little rant with you OK? i.e incase you cant read get some MANNERS.

[AC!D]

Greenberg, afaik...

but don't even get me started on that guy. His hyperboles and whatnot REALLY pissed me off. He states stuff about Sony, yet is really good at ignoring his own system with MUCH bigger problems.

The delay of home might have pissed many people off... But in the end, a buggy Home might have cost them MUCH more, thus delaying it was the best option.

And Greenberg stating stuff like the movie store... Since until now, this store is basically US only on the 360 (yes, there is one in Europe too, but the content is old crap, from what I read and nothing new is added). I am sure, MS only launched it already, because they wanted to be first, not because it was ready (same with the system), as it IS an unfinished piece of bull.


He also was that asshole who "spun" the low 360 sales back in the day and argued, that they were "supply constrained"... What a load of bullshit.

And saying "we will ship Gears 2 when KZ2 (their first game) isn't even out"... Yeah right... Outsourcing to Epic, which already had a nearly finished engine compared to a game, that was done internally from scratch. (whereas Insomniac will ship its 3rd freaking game when R2 hits, bitch!)

"Quotes" come from here (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=138470)


Yeah i know Greenberg is an idiot and sorry for the spelling but 10% of what he said is true and thats the part i want Sony to fix. Dont even get me started on MS and their broken promises or we will be here all night and dont missunderstand me, what i mean was that Sony just end up giving guys like this more ammo and when some of it is true it hurts just a little more.

@Cliffbo-Thank you

@Evil Taru-I hope you are right. I hope they have something awesome to show us at E3. I dont know who this Yoshida character is but i hope he is the right man for the job

@ Red eyes- i couldnt agree with your last post more and that was all im saying we should voice our concerns because Europe in all departments are letting us down including Reeves and his side of the business.

[EvilTaru]

I didnt even mention a Yoshida so dont know where you come up with that. Then Your talking about Yoshida in your post and yet i see no mention about your pessimism about Yoshida in this quote oh and im still missing the part where you agree with me cause im trying to voice my concerns and your trying to bury them in the past as if we should move on cause there is nothing we can do about it well i disagree and i think Sony can do something to not let all the pre production go to waste like G ummmm off the top of my head hire a third party to do it or give it to Sony America/Japan/India devs etc team. Let me guess i was supposed catch up to your level of understanding of yourself by reading every single one of your previous posts so my feeble little mind can understand you better right? Well sorry i only reply to what you posted to me and frankly couldnt care enough about you to go read the rest of your posts so make your points clear next time unless this is just a backtrack on your part which it clearly seems it is.

Finally maybe when you learn to post to ppl in a respectful way and not take shots at every single post then ill stop my little rant with you OK? i.e incase you cant read get some MANNERS.

I'm not sure other teams want to be working on the getaway or eight days when they can be working on their own projects, I think the folks at London Studios maybe were in over their heads trying to make games that maybe they really don't have the kind of people to make, maybe they are working on something more feasible and now they can devote more of their team to that project, trying to replicate a GTA-like experience is probably too much for them.

[AC!D]

I'm not sure other teams want to be working on the getaway or eight days when they can be working on their own projects, I think the folks at London Studios maybe were in over their heads trying to make games that maybe they really don't have the kind of people to make, maybe they are working on something more feasible and now they can devote more of their team to that project, trying to replicate a GTA-like experience is probably too much for them.

Im sure there are many young hungry upstart teams who would love to try though so i hope Sony do try to find someone with the adequate experience and quality dev work to go for it especially for eight days cause the premise sounded great for the game.

On another note i wish Sony would start making deals with third party devs who do excellent work for them like Ready at Dawn instead of deals with Factor 5. After their great work on Daxter and GOW psp i would have thought Sony would have looked into making an Insomniac kinda publishing deal with them. Im also impressed with the other third party dev that made the Ratchet psp game and the new Clank game. This is where Microsoft for all their faults have done amazingly well by signing up with the best third party studios to make exclusives for them.

[EvilTaru]

But they are doing that though, they're still working with High Impact Games, they basically bought Evolution and Big Big after Motorstorm and Pursuit Force, they can't really hold on to Ready At Dawn if RAD wanted to move on to something else, but RAD just released God of War COO this year, Sony doesn't own Sucker Punch but they've had exclusive publishing agreements with them for awhile now and SCEA is publishing inFAMOUS, they've continued to work with Insomniac Games and Media Molecule, they're working with Q Games on the pixel junk series which has been great, they're working with thatgamecompany on flower now after fl0w, it's not all bad.

Sometimes when you work with a third-party on a new IP you don't know what's going to happen, you might have something like Motorstorm which turned out to be great and you would want to buy the developer, you might have something like a Heavenly Sword which was expensive, had a TON of production value but the game itself wasn't so great, and then you have LAIR which ended up being a stinker.

It's like Sony Japan and Game Republic, the first Genji was so-so, Genji 2 was crap, but Folklore was actually pretty good. I don't think Sony will be working with Factor 5 anytime soon though, Factor 5 really lacks that game design talent despite being so great at tech, and Ninja Theory has obviously moved on, although I'm probably not going to miss them too much since they don't seem to have the kind of gameplay sensibilities I like, too much spent on cinematics and you have a character that can do all these things during QTEs but during actual combat you can't even jump manually, beautiful environments but no way of traversing it via platforming, so much wasted potential. Such wasted tech though since Ninja Theory is licensing Unreal Engine 3 now, they had one of the best lighting models out there.

[Z]

like Ready at Dawn
they already have. RaD is working on their first PS3 game and - get this- it's a brand new IP!

[AC!D]

they already have. RaD is working on their first PS3 game and - get this- it's a brand new IP! I thought they said their new IP was multi plat so its not exactly great for Sony more likley a gain for MS unless im wrong?

[Sephiroth_VII]

This is turning into a flame war....

[aclar00]

is it me, or is it every time someone becomes disappointed with something Sony does and they proceed to voice their opinion on the matter, they are bombarded with negative post suggesting they are being silly and irrational?

[LaLiLuLeLo]

This is turning into a flame war....

where?

[Sephiroth_VII]

Turning into, aka getting progressively more pathetic. Not there yet, but it certainly could happen soon with this kind of completely pointless discussion...

[pac4life]

i wouldn't be sad if the getaway got cancelled....there are much much much better games coming out on the ps3


and the getaway was one of the crappiest games i played last gen. i'm sure some people liked it, as i initally did because it was realisitc, but the game had so many flaws its not even funny. I thought it was average at best (5/10).

Then when i tried out the PSP version, hopeing to give it another shot, i just realized why i disliked the game so much.

[Z]

for me, Mafia 2 is the closest I could see what the Getaway could've been. that game is simply amazing.

on the topic of Ninja Theory, I am very curious as to how they will progress given their released title. will they follow Factor 5's footsteps by making great technical games with lacking gameplay, or will they change? also, will their 'games as movies' stance alter as well?

[Z]

I thought they said their new IP was multi plat so its not exactly great for Sony more likley a gain for MS unless im wrong?

I am not sure, and I don't care really. the only thing registered in my brain was 'new IP' and 'PS3'. I never cared if a PS3 game was exclusive or not as long as it appears on PS3, at any time.

[EvilTaru]

for me, Mafia 2 is the closest I could see what the Getaway could've been. that game is simply amazing.

on the topic of Ninja Theory, I am very curious as to how they will progress given their released title. will they follow Factor 5's footsteps by making great technical games with lacking gameplay, or will they change? also, will their 'games as movies' stance alter as well?

I'm sure they still have a good programming team but both Marco Salvi and Dean Calver have left, not that two people makes all the difference, they are licensing Unreal Engine 3 now, so I really wonder what's going to happen in terms of tech.

I doubt their games as movies stance will change, the question is whether a publisher would fund that kind of stuff, gameplay-wise they need to get better designers, otherwise I doubt their games will be much better, there are so many things that they could have done, but they made gameplay over-simplified and linear, I still can't believe they subscribe to that QTE bullshit so heavily that they would use it for traversal instead of giving the player a jump button, it's not like their animations are so flawless that giving player more manual control breaks them, it's just an example of game designer actually "not getting it" in an attempt to try to be unique instead of just sticking with what works and what engages the player.

Seriously though, that QTE shit has GOT to be banned.

[OG_Monkey]

Dammit, Getaway was easily my most anticipated game. I do hope nothing happened to Heavy Rain, 'cause we haven't seen or heard from it for a very long time either, except for some extreme close up pictures.

OH NOOOOO! Heavy Rain WILL come out....I'll be pissed the day I hear its canceled. I'll even cry :(

[Segitz]

OH NOOOOO! Heavy Rain WILL come out....I'll be pissed the day I hear its canceled. I'll even cry :(

Well, HR is done be Quantic Dream. The only thing, Sony could do, is stop funding it... But they are contractually (?) bound to finish the project, for sure... so I doubt, they will pull out.

[GTAce]

I do hope nothing happened to Heavy Rain, 'cause we haven't seen or heard from it for a very long time either, except for some extreme close up pictures.
Theres a planned demonstration from the game and the engine at E³ from QD and Sony as far as i know.

[Sephiroth_VII]

Right you are.

[Z]

has Heavy Rain ever been addresses or confirmed as a 'game'? because every time it is mentioned, they keep talking about virtual actors and real-time actor model representation and capturing and things like that. even their famous, and only, demo was called 'The Casting'. Sony may be funding them for the tech and research for PS3 development. I checked QD's website many months ago and all I could find were commercials they made and some mo-cap.

[the boney king of nowhere.]

when is e3 this year?

[dnpmakkah]

This will happen to Heaven Rain also. Lets just keep saying that so we don't get dissapointed.

[Viper]

has Heavy Rain ever been addresses or confirmed as a 'game'? because every time it is mentioned, they keep talking about virtual actors and real-time actor model representation and capturing and things like that. even their famous, and only, demo was called 'The Casting'. Sony may be funding them for the tech and research for PS3 development. I checked QD's website many months ago and all I could find were commercials they made and some mo-cap.Exactly. What we have "seen" of the game is nothing more than a tech demo. Has nothing to do with their actual game.

when is e3 this year?
July 15-17.

[Z]

so they are working on a game? all I know for sure is that they are working on mo-cap and real-time human rendering tech and that Sony is one of the companies funding them. they don't seem to be focusing on games. I think for the decade or so they've been operational, they only made one game. right?

[EvilTaru]

so they are working on a game? all I know for sure is that they are working on mo-cap and real-time human rendering tech and that Sony is one of the companies funding them. they don't seem to be focusing on games. I think for the decade or so they've been operational, they only made one game. right?

They'd better show something playable after what? Three years? Maybe more? As least before Yoshida decides to drop the hammer on them. I think PS3 owners are interested in GAMES, not cutscenes, not mo-caps, GAMES.

[Viper]

Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer is an official game in development but little is really known about it. Easily a late 2009 titles since actual content development only began a few months back.

[Z]

also, i think it is worth noting to not confuse the tech demos with the actual game as no connection has been made, AFAIK. the tech demos were merely showing off what their engine can do. the game may end up something completely different looking and feeling than that. in any case, if I don't see something playable by E3, this will fall in to my 'lose track and forget about it' list.

[Viper]

Correct that it was a tech demo, not a game demo. However, I doubt we'll see anything from it at E3. The tech demo was displayed at E3 2006 but the actual game didn't start real content development until just a few months ago.

You may as well forget the "game" for now. We've been anticipating the tech demo for 2 years but the game itself has only just really started.

[flipflop]

Where has this myth about Sony games getting delayed come from?. As far as i know only killzone is delayed. Also Sony release more game than MS or Nintendo. But theres constant sniping at Sony, why?.

[Viper]

Where has this myth about Sony games getting delayed come from?. As far as i know only killzone is delayed. Also Sony release more game than MS or Nintendo. But theres constant sniping at Sony, why?.

Sony has published 19 PS3 games. Developed only a about half of them.
Nintendo has published 25 Wii games. Developed most of them.

This isn't a comparison to see who's best, just point out that you're information is incorrect regarding proliferation this gen.


You're correct that only KZ2 has had an official delay but there are many titles were that were expected in a specific range (i.e. fall, spring, etc...) as stated by the publisher but officially announced release dates have put them beyond that time frame. This gives gamers the impression they've been delayed.

[AC!D]

It would seem Sony are losing more titles out of Japan also now. Last Remnant is a 360 timed exclusive for an unknown specified time and Star Ocean has only been announced for the 360 with Squenix saying that they might release it on PS3 a while after its release on 360 or might not.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Ureal Engine. The 2 Tri Ace games and Last remnant are all Unreal Engine games and the Sony exclusive games are all crystal tools games. Wonder if all the probs with Unreal have been sorted out when Sony and Epic worked together cause i dont seem to see the knock on effect to Ureal licensed devs.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=148787

[Viper]

I can't imagine it being an issue with the game engine since UT2008 did fine on PS3.

Does seem strange the X360 is getting more Squenix japan love than PS3 though. Sure the PS3 is having a rough time of it over there but it isn't like X360 is knocking things out of the park either.

[AC!D]

I can't imagine it being an issue with the game engine since UT2008 did fine on PS3.

Does seem strange the X360 is getting more Squenix japan love than PS3 though. Sure the PS3 is having a rough time of it over there but it isn't like X360 is knocking things out of the park either.

Yeah i dunno all i can come up with is the engine or MS is paying a fortune for these games. You would think after dissapointing sales for Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon that it would be stupid bussines sense to go exclusive with MS and what happens Eternal Sonata gets cancelled in the west for PS3. Namco then makes tales of Vesperia exclusive for the end of the year on 360. Now Squenix gives MS one exclusive Infinite undiscovery, one timed exclusive The last remnant and another potetially full on exclusive star ocean 4. I hate playing rpg's on my 360. :(

[Segitz]

From a "market penetration" perspective, it just doesn't make sense for Square to do so... (I mean, building up new IPs is more than just getting its moneys worth, it is also about establishing a fanbase, and that will not work as good on the 360 as on the PS3, at least I think so)

Yes, they get TONS of cash from MS, and I guess Sony paid in quite some cash for FF too, but this looks like MS is getting increasingly desperate. But we will see... they didn't say anything about the PS3 versions, afaik... Maybe, it is again, creative marketing speak like with GTA4. Just don't say anything remotely concrete and people start implying stuff.

I just wonder, where are Sonys (as in "on PS3") RPGs? We know about 4 (2xFF, WKS and Disgaea 3 (or whatever numeral)) titles sort of and we have gotten exactly NONE so far (except Folklore, and no, I don't consider Encharted Arms a viable RPG), and we are getting dangerously near the "year 3" mark.

This is why many people say, the PS3 has no games. There are games, but the genres are too concentrated in the "western games" mindset. And I'd agree, if those comments weren't mostly spoken by idiotic fanboys of different "heritage".

[curryking1]

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by that...

I really want to play Star Ocean IV. It looks really cool from the screens that are out. Last Remnant looks interesting too (at least that's multiplat though I think, I hope it's also simultaneous release).

I'm only going to have one console. I'm not a person who buys 20 - 30 games and has 2 consoles every generation. I really am not flattered by Square Enix is just abandoning the PS3 like that for these games. I mean at least make them multiplatform. Why do so many of us fans have to take the kick in the teeth like this?

The only way I think it makes sense is that they want to make relatively low budget titles with them and keep doing it until it sticks and so they have a nice additional revenue...

But that means I can't play them, and it also makes me feel Square Enix is not a company I'm so interested in anymore. I mean... what are they doing? Are they just trying to 'produce' games rather than actually try to make a great experience? What are they after as a publisher and group of devs now?

Are they doing this because they are in the red? I hope to God it's because they are in the red, because if this is their gameplan for the foreseeable future I don't like it.

I miss Squaresoft... :'(

[AC!D]

So is the game coming to the PS3 as well?

Square Enix producer Yoshinori Yamagishi cleared things up during a roundtable interview session that followed the press conference. Asked if the game is 360-only, he said, "We cannot announce anything on that. We can say that it will be released first [on the Xbox 360]. Whether we'll release it on the PS3 is undecided. We may release it, we may not."

Looks like, as with Last Remnant, 360 owners get this Square Enix epic first, but PS3 owners may get their own version in the future as well!
Head over to IGN's Live Blog of the event for more details.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/880/880434p1.html

Like i said The Last Remnant is a timed exclusive and if Star ocean 4 is not an exclusive then it will also be timed i didnt assume anything when i read what Yoshinori Yamagishi, producer of the game said. Straight from the horses mouth.

[curryking1]

That's very frustrating on both accounts. As a fan of Enix and Squaresoft RPGs, it is very disappointing to get the short end of the stick.

@Seph below - don't take my habit of using commas where you shouldn't use commas lol.

(is saving post 9000 for a Metal Gear Solid 4 review... I KNOW EVERYONE CARES SO I AM TELLING YOU! XD I'll actually try to write an article though... maybe... we'll see lol)

[Sephiroth_VII]

This makes no sense at all.

I hope MS paid a lot, because they Enix won't sell many of their games on the 360.

[Red_Eyes]

Square Enix just won't learn...
Just gotta let them lose more money before they will realize it.

[Raijin]

It would seem Sony are losing more titles out of Japan also now. Last Remnant is a 360 timed exclusive for an unknown specified time and Star Ocean has only been announced for the 360 with Squenix saying that they might release it on PS3 a while after its release on 360 or might not.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Ureal Engine. The 2 Tri Ace games and Last remnant are all Unreal Engine games and the Sony exclusive games are all crystal tools games. Wonder if all the probs with Unreal have been sorted out when Sony and Epic worked together cause i dont seem to see the knock on effect to Ureal licensed devs.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=148787


The 2 Tri-Ace games are not running on UE3... Never! Only The Last Remnant is supposed to be running on it.

[Raitei]

Square Enix just won't learn...
Just gotta let them lose more money before they will realize it.

lose more money buy making a game for a console with a larger market share?
In a business sense, that would be thr right thing to do wouldn't it, as much as it may pain the fans, im sure their wallets are well buffed so that, the couldn't really care?

[Segitz]

lose more money buy making a game for a console with a larger market share?
In a business sense, that would be thr right thing to do wouldn't it, as much as it may pain the fans, im sure their wallets are well buffed so that, the couldn't really care?

Well, from what we have seen so far

- JRPGs sell badly on the 360
- There's no installed base in Japan to speak of, for the 360
- The Playstation is quite big in terms of JRPGs
- The Playstation also is not a lost cause in Japan...


What I want to says is this... The PS Brand is quite a heavy hitter, when it comes to JRPGs, the XBox is not. Some time ago, I read an article about Squaresoft, where it said, that most of their revenues stem from their Japanese sales, and that Europe and the US are only small bonuses, as releasing games overseas adds quite some costs etc. they don't have in Japan. Times may have changed, but I really doubt that. Now, they take away 90% of their potential revenue by sticking their games to the one machine, that doesn't sell in their country.

For me, this doesn't make sense. Microsoft must have paid them quite a lot to actually get these exclusives. If they are indeed only timed, I hope, the added delay will make them better games, with added stuff (SE is known for adding stuff to their games).

Well... I can't care less ATM^^ MGS4 will be in my hands in ~32hrs and 13 minutes (my store only opens at 930 :( )... Speaking of which, the timing of MS announcing this is quite interesting, isn't it^^

[EvilTaru]

Sony needs to acquire a RPG developer and just make these games in house, and concentrate on making quality games on their system and marketing them such that they become popular, is Nintendo even worried where Last Remnant is going? No, Nintendo doesn't give a shit, why? Because Nintendo can make a Zelda or Mario game and sell 10 times as much, Sony really doesn't have a choice but to NOT rely so much on third-party development anymore and try to develop and publish more games themselves, take the lead on their own platform, and third-party publishers will follow.

[Red_Eyes]

lose more money buy making a game for a console with a larger market share?
In a business sense, that would be thr right thing to do wouldn't it, as much as it may pain the fans, im sure their wallets are well buffed so that, the couldn't really care?
The thing is, Xbox 360 got a really small Japanese market. The PS3 market is bigger in Japan. It would make more sense to go to the PS3, or go multi-platform.

[AC!D]

The 2 Tri-Ace games are not running on UE3... Never! Only The Last Remnant is supposed to be running on it.

My mistake then thanks for the correction. That blows my UE3 theory away then.

[Red_Eyes]

Well, at least both FFXIII is still PS3 exclusive.

[pari]

IIRC, Square-Enix CEO said in an interview that they want to balance the game development across multiple system and avoid PS2 like scenario. So they would develop for 360 also. What is surprising is when Square was in doldrums due to Final Fantasy movie fiasco, Sony helped them out and that is how it got the 5% share(I believe) and Japanese companies are know for kinmanship, now Square stabbing Sony at the most venerable time.

Viper, do you have data for Lost Odyssey sale in US? I am curious to see how much it sold because that might be a useful data point to see how the upcoming RPG's would do.

I am disliking MS for their ethics with respect to competition, i.e., no ethics at all. Instead of producing a superior product all they do is Mafia style...

[Z]

Sony needs to acquire a RPG developer and just make these games in house, and concentrate on making quality games on their system and marketing them such that they become popular, is Nintendo even worried where Last Remnant is going? No, Nintendo doesn't give a shit, why? Because Nintendo can make a Zelda or Mario game and sell 10 times as much, Sony really doesn't have a choice but to NOT rely so much on third-party development anymore and try to develop and publish more games themselves, take the lead on their own platform, and third-party publishers will follow.

true. in fact, their last RPG was very good (Legend of the Dragoon). I never understood why they haven't pushed development with Asia's biggest genre?

[OmniCloud]

IIRC, Square-Enix CEO said in an interview that they want to balance the game development across multiple system and avoid PS2 like scenario. So they would develop for 360 also. What is surprising is when Square was in doldrums due to Final Fantasy movie fiasco, Sony helped them out and that is how it got the 5% share(I believe) and Japanese companies are know for kinmanship, now Square stabbing Sony at the most venerable time.

Viper, do you have data for Lost Odyssey sale in US? I am curious to see how much it sold because that might be a useful data point to see how the upcoming RPG's would do.

I am disliking MS for their ethics with respect to competition, i.e., no ethics at all. Instead of producing a superior product all they do is Mafia style...Agreed, but many people don't care if a piece a candy came from the gutter, as long as it looks clean and taste good;)

Can't say that I was looking forward to this, mostly Disgaea and White Knight Story got my attention for RPG's this year. Still, this sucks if they never come to PS3--but that's seems a bit unlikely, especially a Star Ocean game.

Then again, Dragon Quest got the Wii treatment and no word on one coming to PS3. Did anyone actually play the DQ game for Wii?! I was insulted...lol

I must say, I haven't enjoyed gaming any MORE since MS entered this thing...and getting an Xbox didn't help either lol. What's all that crap about competition making everything better for the industry? Hmm..i'm still waiting.

[Viper]

IIRC, Square-Enix CEO said in an interview that they want to balance the game development across multiple system and avoid PS2 like scenario. So they would develop for 360 also. What is surprising is when Square was in doldrums due to Final Fantasy movie fiasco, Sony helped them out and that is how it got the 5% share(I believe) and Japanese companies are know for kinmanship, now Square stabbing Sony at the most venerable time.
You're close.

Sony bought a 19% share of Squaresoft around that time. When Squaresoft and Enix merged, Sony's shares dropped to just 8.53%. Keep in mind that many companies own small portions of shares or other publishers. Nintendo owns a portion of Bandai (now Bandai namco), EA owns a chunk of Ubisoft, etc...

Viper, do you have data for Lost Odyssey sale in US? I am curious to see how much it sold because that might be a useful data point to see how the upcoming RPG's would do.420k with about 10k sales per week.

For comparison, here are some US PS3 and X360 RPG's.

PS3:
Oblivion - 480k
Enchanted Arms - 150k
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - 100k

X360:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - 2.44 million (was bundled for a long time)
Oblivion - 1.68 million (plus 150k Shivering Isles expansion)
Mass Effect - 1.41 million
Lost Odyssey - 420K
Blue Dragon - 220K
Eternal Sonata - 170K

[OmniCloud]

You're close.

Sony bought a 19% share of Squaresoft around that time. When Squaresoft and Enix merged, Sony's shares dropped to just 8.53%. Keep in mind that many companies own small portions of shares or other publishers. Nintendo owns a portion of Bandai (now Bandai namco), EA owns a chunk of Ubisoft, etc...

420k with about 10k sales per week.

For comparison, here are some US PS3 and X360 RPG's.

PS3:
Oblivion - 480k
Enchanted Arms - 150k
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - 100k

X360:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - 2.44 million (was bundled for a long time)
Oblivion - 1.68 million (plus 150k Shivering Isles expansion)
Mass Effect - 1.41 million
Lost Odyssey - 420K
Blue Dragon - 220K
Eternal Sonata - 170K

Sony and Nintendo should just buy Square enix--everyone's happy...btw--what can Sony even do with that share of SE anyway? What's the purpose?

[Viper]

They receive annual dividends if SE does well enough for the year. In an odd way, Square doing good on X360 is profitable for Sony.

Or they could sell their shares for profit so long as the value is higher than the price they originally paid however it looks like it's worth about 1/3rd the value they paid in 2001.

[EvilTaru]

You're close.

Sony bought a 19% share of Squaresoft around that time. When Squaresoft and Enix merged, Sony's shares dropped to just 8.53%. Keep in mind that many companies own small portions of shares or other publishers. Nintendo owns a portion of Bandai (now Bandai namco), EA owns a chunk of Ubisoft, etc...

420k with about 10k sales per week.

For comparison, here are some US PS3 and X360 RPG's.

PS3:
Oblivion - 480k
Enchanted Arms - 150k
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom - 100k

X360:
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - 2.44 million (was bundled for a long time)
Oblivion - 1.68 million (plus 150k Shivering Isles expansion)
Mass Effect - 1.41 million
Lost Odyssey - 420K
Blue Dragon - 220K
Eternal Sonata - 170K

Oblivion and Encharted Arms for the PS3 are ports, VERY, VERY LATE PORTS, for Oblivion to squeeze another 500k on such a late port, it's very good business for Bethesda.

You also have to consider how much marketing goes into some of these xbox360 RPGs and even with marketing, games like Blue Dragon might end up being a money-losing proposition, Eternal Sonata basically was a money-loser for NAMCO. How much would you think SOE spent on Untold Legends versus what MS gave Bioware to make Mass Effect? The next western RPG might be HUGE on the xbox360, but the xbox360 is basically a non-viable console for JRPGs, even with a huge marketing campaign behind it. Obviously MS is spending money on marketing these games, probably more than what Sony could have offered.

The genre is dying in Japan, games cost too much to make and in some cases you can't even hit 500k worldwide, and MAYBE on the PS3 they could do better, but who knows. I don't think this is a good decision for Square-Enix in the long run, and when the JRPG market dips lower and perhaps when the PS3 is doing a bit better on their own first-party software line-up, Sony might not be such a willing partner, FF might still be big but stuff like Star Ocean might have a harder time attracting interest, some people will start playing other genres and their gaming interest might change over time.

Right now Sony is still very third-party friendly, and more importantly the userbase is still very third-party friendly, and this is good for third-party developers and publishers in general, the last thing companies want to do when it comes to a platform-maker like Sony is put them in a situation where they HAVE to start making everything for themselves and provide the leading products in each genre, because once you have a userbase that prefers first-party products over everything else, third-party developers and publishers will have a very hard time selling to a first-party-centric audience, and that was exactly what happened with Nintendo. That's why Tecmo had to make NGSigma, even if only some PS3 owners will pick it up, because once God of War 3 comes out and all these people play and all these people know in terms of action games is the God of War series, you can no longer penetrate that market. Publishers like Activision and EA have to be extremely careful with the FPS genre on the PS3 being dominated by titles like Resistance 2 and Killzone 2. JRPG-wise Sony might not have a choice but to go back to the times when they made everything from Legend of Dragoon to Legaia to Wild Arms to Arc the Lad.

It's like this, if White Knight Story comes out and turns out to be amazing, and Star Ocean comes out a year after its release on the 360, would people really care as much? Probably not. If inFAMOUS comes out and turns out to be amazing and they decide to delay the PS3 version of Prototype, Prototype might end up being a much less viable game on the platform. I think a year ago it might be ok to ignore outright or screw the PS3 userbase, but not now, this will come back to bite Square-Enix in the ass. Obviously Sony's first-party game development and third-party relations need to respond to this as well, but if PS3 users end up embracing only first-party JRPG offerings because companies like Square-Enix and Namco basically told them to fuck off, how is this good for third-party JRPG makers when all is said and done?http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/EvilTaru/Indifferent2.gif

[EvilTaru]

Sony and Nintendo should just buy Square enix--everyone's happy...btw--what can Sony even do with that share of SE anyway? What's the purpose?

The purpose was Sony bailing Square out when they were almost put out of business by Sakaguchi's bone-headed move to make an expensive CG movie that bombed hard, after the merger with Enix Square basically got rid of Sakaguchi and CEO Iwasaki.

Btw, isn't this thread about Eight Days/Getaway getting cancelled?http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v500/EvilTaru/Indifferent2.gif

[Red_Eyes]

Btw, isn't this thread about Eight Days/Getaway getting cancelled?Yes. And I blame it on Microsoft. LOL.

[Z]

Btw, isn't this thread about Eight Days/Getaway getting cancelled?
it is, but it begs the discussing of other similarly pig projects being canceled or moved to other platforms. :)