Support NeoGAF

[Scrawnton]

That Lego game proved Horizon has absolutely no brand power. Sony can prove me wrong by selling a Horizon game without forcing purchases of it via bundles.

 

[Cakeboxer]

That Lego game proved Horizon has absolutely no brand power. Sony can prove me wrong by selling a Horizon game without forcing purchases of it via bundles.

Bundles only helped Forbidden West sales, not HZD sales.

 

[mitch1971]

I don't get this horizon all in approach. It's an ok-ish game. It didn't exactly set the world alight.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

I don't get this horizon all in approach. It's an ok-ish game. It didn't exactly set the world alight.

Herman Hulst man, it's his "baby", simple as
Nepotism at its finest

 

[Hypereides]

Separate game?? How many fucking horizon games are they making??

Hermen is out of his mind. He's overestimating the weight behind it.

Its starting to look like the internal strife at PS is a real thing.

 

[Felessan]

Sure, people shouldn't focus on the owner of the IP, who decides which projects greenlight and who deems it a great idea to have not one but TWO Horizon multiplayer. A seamless plan.

And Nintendo grinlit tons of Mario games, so what?
You probably not understand as 95% people raging doesn't even read news past header, but 2 online games hardly compete with each other, one (cancelled) is a f*cking mobile game from Korean gamedev, korean aesthetic and target market probably 90% Asia mobile.

Would be quite good if not every 2 game that is and was in development at Sony

This game was not developed at Sony.

Not surprising. Playstation was never known as a paragon of multiplayer games, so it's not surprising their live-service initiative went south after Concord's monumental failure.

But NCsoft, who in charge of project IS a paramaunt (former) of multiplayer games

 

[coachmcguirk91]

With all of Sony's first party GAAS games being cancelled, and with the time it takes to develop a AAA single-player game, we're probably only going to get Intergalactic, Ghost, and Wolverine for the remainder of the PS5 generation. Spider-Man 3 will launch on PS6 and you won't see the Bend game or Sony Santa Monica's game until then.

You still have Housemarque and Firesprite's horror game that should be out in next couple years. Sony Santa Monica's new IP will surely release in 2026 or 2027. Venom, expansion of Spider-Man 2, leaked to come out this year. Not to mention, a game like Death Stranding 2, which is funded by Sony and uses their decima engine

the problem with this generation for Sony is the lack of new IP. All of their AAA sequels this gen(HFW, SM2, and GOWR) were mostly just more of the same. The original games were a breath of fresh air in the PS4 generation. But even during the PS4 generation, Sony usually only released one big AAA game a year. This generation just feels repetitive with safe sequels. Hopefully ND and SSM can fix that with their new IP's

 

[StereoVsn]

It's funny (well, not really) how people are focusing on Sony here, without realizing that this is NCSoft cancelling a lot of stuff because they're about to fucking die.

De nouveaux projets sabordés chez NCsoft, des équipes de développement réaffectées

Selon les cadres de NCsoft, si le groupe ne se redresse pas en 2025, le studio n'aura plus d'avenir. Le géant coréen poursuit ses restructurations, saborde de nouveaux projets de jeux pour renforcer d'autres équipes de développement.

www.jeuxonline.info

Wow, how much have they f-d up in the last couple of years? Always thought they were super profitable.

 

[Hypereides]

No, there were people over at SIE who lost their jobs. Remember when Connie booth and a bunch of her team was fired?

Jaffe also mentioned a lot of the teams at PS weren't thrilled about the new focus on GAAS either:





We're seeing the consequences of that in real time. There's also word on the grapevine that Hulst is petty/vindictive and some of the new management is catty/bitchy.

 

[Roman Empire]

But NCsoft, who in charge of project IS a paramaunt (former) of multiplayer games

It is hard to speculate what happened but I'm wishing for an insider to spill out the beans on multiple failed Playstation online projects.

 

[Camreezie]

Remember a couple of years ago when people used to say that sony concentrating resources into this slop wouldn't take away from single player projects? Lmao

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

i was actually looking forward to a horizon multiplayer game. Maybe not necessarily made by ncsoft of all people, but you get the gist.

 

[adamsapple]

ALOYYYYYYYYYYY !!!!

 

[Loomy]

We're seeing the consequences of that in real time. There's also word on the grapevine that Hulst is petty/vindictive and some of the new management is catty/bitchy.

Yup. This is them correcting the decisions from the Jim Ryan era. Lots of money/time/people have been wasted over the last 3 years.

 

[Felessan]

It is hard to speculate what happened but I'm wishing for an insider to spill out the beans on multiple failed Playstation online projects.

Given that multiple projects were cancelled, things probably have less to do with Sony and more to do with NCSoft internal situation

NCSoft among other companies specializing on online games (like S-E) have particular troubles compete with Chinese and adopting to new realities.

As for Sony situation it's quite straightforward - failure of Concord launched re-evaluation of projects with higher scrutinity and stricter approach to a financial model behind proposals, that lead to culling of weaker projects.

 

[DannyDanger]

Old man yells at cloud and ...
But can we please back to the era meaty single player campaigns? You can't convince me that the big focus on GAAS hasn't hinder the output of Sony single player games.

I'm not a GAAS defender but we have plenty of big meaty single player campaigns, from Sony, let's be real here

 

[Mr Moose]

separate project from the Horizon online game​

They were making TWO???
Why?

 

[KyoZz]

WTF NC SOFT.

Make Guild Wars 3, and yet you failed!!

 

[nial]

Sure, people shouldn't focus on the owner of the IP, who decides which projects greenlight and who deems it a great idea to have not one but TWO Horizon multiplayer. A seamless plan.

Are you even paying attention? You're essentially blaming Sony for external factors out of its control. If, for whatever reason, NCSoft decides to cut its development production and reallocate its staff onto projects with far more progress or faith put onto them (in terms of generating revenue that will help keeping the company afloat), Sony can't literally do anything about it.

 

[Hudo]

They were making TWO???
Why?

Because, for some reason, Hermen Hulst is still trying to brute force Horizon as a popular or even "key" IP.

 

[vkbest]

No, there were people over at SIE who lost their jobs. Remember when Connie booth and a bunch of her team was fired?

Sure, all first party studios began to make live services games at the same time coincidentally right?

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Total live service death

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

And Nintendo grinlit tons of Mario games, so what?
You probably not understand as 95% people raging doesn't even read news past header, but 2 online games hardly compete with each other, one (cancelled) is a f*cking mobile game from Korean gamedev, korean aesthetic and target market probably 90% Asia mobile.

I understand all that and unlike Sony's execs, I know that Horizon has no market in Asia, let alone on mobile. It's absolutely stupid to push this IP as if it were a big deal outside the home console/PC sphere.

Do you seriously think Sony bothered to do some research before approving this?

 

[ComputerBlue]

What a waste of an entire generation and otherwise amazing console, whoever made these decisions to waste time and resources chasing gaas trends need to be let go, they fucked up so bad.

 

[hlm666]

don't worry guys Light of Moritan is still coming.

 

[MayauMiao]

don't worry guys Light of Moritan is still coming.

The main character might end up being more popular than Aloy as soon as sexy skin is made available.

 

[Felessan]

I understand all that and unlike Sony's execs, I know that Horizon has no market in Asia, let alone on mobile. It's absolutely stupid to push this IP as if it were a big deal outside the home console/PC sphere.

Do you seriously think Sony bothered to do some research before approving this?

It's very strange to think that Horizon has no market in Asia on mobiles when MonHun, on which Horizon is based, is huge there, especially in portable format
And they do enough changes to clearly differentiate themselves

I expect that the collaboration would be with Tencent/Netease instead of NCSoft, project would be perfectly fine

 

[Z O N E]

So more money spent on absolutely nothing.

They really wanted to milk every franchise into a GAAS Live service title.

 

[Three]

That Lego game proved Horizon has absolutely no brand power. Sony can prove me wrong by selling a Horizon game without forcing purchases of it via bundles.

They sold more Horizon on steam alone than Indiana Jones and people would have you believe thats an amazing success of a game or brand. Right now an old Horzon game that released almost a year ago has more players than IJ that just came out last month. The brand isn't massive like fortnite, CoD or whatever but it receives too much hate by those trying to form a narrative of a franchise nobody wants, a lot of people enjoy Horizon.

 

[Horseganador]

The Concord disaster will be a good thing in the end, it seems that Sony has started to change course and go in the right direction, it's a shame about the time wasted on this garbage that nobody wanted.

 

[SHAKEZ]

They sold more Horizon on steam alone than Indiana Jones and people would have you believe thats an amazing success of a game or brand. Right now an old Horzon game that released almost a year ago has more players than IJ that just came out last month. The brand isn't massive like fortnite, CoD or whatever but it receives too much hate by those trying to form a narrative of a franchise nobody wants, a lot of people enjoy Horizon.

That's a really low bar lol

 

[ArtHands]

Time for a Lego Horizon 2

 

[Hypereides]

It's very strange to think that Horizon has no market in Asia on mobiles when MonHun, on which Horizon is based, is huge there, especially in portable format
And they do enough changes to clearly differentiate themselves

I expect that the collaboration would be with Tencent/Netease instead of NCSoft, project would be perfectly fine

No offense, you really do come off like some boardroom fool who only has a very passing, shallow idea of games and gaming.

"Well, gee, both of these games look kind of similar, so of course it will be a success! Who cares if the appeal is different!". Its like comparing a cheap black market knock-off to the original thing.

 

[Three]

That's a really low bar lol

What's a good bar? Silent hill 2? Again more people playing Horizon on "non-bundled" steam than a new game. I'm not saying it's setting the world on fire like Fifa or something but the way people talk about it having absolutely no brand power or not selling outside of bundles is bullshit.

 

[ComputerBlue]

I wonder how long before the price of PS + gets increased again so they can recoup all of these losses from so many failures.

 

[PurePlatinum]

I remember at the end of last year we were all saying, "Well I hope they learn their lesson from the dual launch of Concord/Astro. One was a total failure and one is GOTY".

We are living in the timeline where they seem to be learning their lesson...albeit it's slow and painful to watch all these games get cancelled. Glad they are ripping the band-aid off and getting back to brass tacks. The Dylan quote here would be, "strike another match, go start anew"

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

They sold more Horizon on steam alone than Indiana Jones and people would have you believe thats an amazing success of a game or brand. Right now an old Horzon game that released almost a year ago has more players than IJ that just came out last month. The brand isn't massive like fortnite, CoD or whatever but it receives too much hate by those trying to form a narrative of a franchise nobody wants, a lot of people enjoy Horizon.

Indiana Jones looks like a critical success but a commercial flop. At best it was a value-add for Gamepass but the sales look awful. On Steam it only did like 1/30 the concurrent players of Starfield.

Anyway Horizon isn’t a failure by any means, it just seems like Sony overestimated the appeal of the Horizon IP and of Aloy.

 

[SHAKEZ]

What's a good bar? Silent hill 2? Again more people playing Horizon on "non-bundled" steam than a new game. I'm not saying it's setting the world on fire like Fifa or something but the way people talk about it having absolutely no brand power or not selling outside of bundles is bullshit.

I'm sorry but the game is still nowhere near an actual success, this is a major first-party game from Sony we're talking about, hell it couldn't even upend the garbage that is Veilguard or a fighting game like SF6. This game is completely mediocre compared to the amount of marketing and pushing it gets from Sony.

 

[ArtHands]

So more money spent on absolutely nothing.

They really wanted to milk every franchise into a GAAS Live service title.

Maybe Sony want to do it in-house

 

[FoxMcChief]

Sony PlayStation really has adopted Western culture. They just keep failing upwards.

 

[Three]

I'm sorry but the game is still nowhere near an actual success, this is a major first-party game from Sony we're talking about, hell it couldn't even upend the garbage that is Veilguard or a fighting game like SF6. This game is completely mediocre compared to the amount of marketing and pushing it gets from Sony.

Um what, Horizon was and still is a success. It even has more players than Veilguard and that again is a new game. Yes SF6 beats it but that's a multiplayer GaaS game and the biggest fighting game franchise. A pretty high bar to beat.

 

[solidus12]

Another one bites the dust. Good !!

 

[WaterOnix]

It's funny (well, not really) how people are focusing on Sony here, without realizing that this is NCSoft cancelling a lot of stuff because they're about to fucking die.

De nouveaux projets sabordés chez NCsoft, des équipes de développement réaffectées

Selon les cadres de NCsoft, si le groupe ne se redresse pas en 2025, le studio n'aura plus d'avenir. Le géant coréen poursuit ses restructurations, saborde de nouveaux projets de jeux pour renforcer d'autres équipes de développement.

www.jeuxonline.info

I know NCSoft published Guild Wars 2 but I always associated that game with ArenaNet. Besides that, I think the last NCSoft game I played was Aion. Shit, that's been a while

 

[AtomicStarving]

 

[Z O N E]

Maybe Sony want to do it in-house

They're already doing one in-house. Guerilla Games have their own Horizon Multiplayer game. So moving this one to in-house whilst they already have another one in-house is just even more ridiculous.

 

[Kacho]

 

[Alandring]

People are celebrating the fact that another Sony live service game is cancelled. But they should be disappointed, because NC Soft MMO would have been the first Horizon game with good looking women.

 

[Saber]

Whos the one who order the chops? Hopefully its that japanese Ceo having enough of Horizon and soy west bullcrap.
This is good news in my book.

Separate game?? How many fucking horizon games are they making??

How many horizon games?
Hermen: yes

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Herman: Yes.

He is able to make toilet paper with Horizon's photo.

 

[saintjules]

With all of Sony's first party GAAS games being cancelled, and with the time it takes to develop a AAA single-player game, we're probably only going to get Intergalactic, Ghost, and Wolverine for the remainder of the PS5 generation. Spider-Man 3 will launch on PS6 and you won't see the Bend game or Sony Santa Monica's game until then.

I would like your hot tub time machine. I want to go back to the PSX days please.