Shuhei Yoshida Says Japan Studio Closed Due to PlayStation Not Wanting AA Titles
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Executives gonna executive 
Nothing wrong with having studios making smaller scale/scope games that have quicker turnarounds than your typical 6~7 AAA multi-hundred million budgeted games.
Nothing wrong with having studios making smaller scale/scope games that have quicker turnarounds than your typical 6~7 AAA multi-hundred million budgeted games.
LordOcidax
Member
bender
What time is it?
Danjin44
The nicest person on this forum
Thats ONLY game liked from Sony for the entire PS5 generation.Also Sony:
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
But the thing for gaming is once you go big, you dont really look back. Ya, EA has some indie games and cheap mobile stuff division, but most of the time big gaming corps go big or go home.Executives gonna executive
Nothing wrong with having studios making smaller scale/scope games that have quicker turnarounds than your typical 6~7 AAA multi-hundred million budgeted games.
You'd think they could carve out some small teams and make some $20 games like indie devs can, but I guess when it comes to costs and business strategy they'd rather roll the dice on big budgets going after 10M+ copies sold at $70 each or a giant F2P game hoping for the next Fortnite or COD.
Great strategy if it's a smash hit. Bad results can lead to studio closure though at the beginning years back they had a shit ton of budget in the bank. All gone.
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Ryu_Joestar
Member
Sony on its way to take Ubisofts place
Killjoy-NL
Gold Member
Like Japan Studio releases broke record after record.
People still think these companies are running charities?
People still think these companies are running charities?
Good thing the gen is not over. Which *Sony* games you liked the first 4 years of PS4?
semiconscious
Member
i'm guessing that, at this point, they're likely rethinking this decision... maybe...
JPSLotus97T
Member
The game industry needs to collectively realize there has to be a backbone to all of this. A handful of AAA titles aren't going to hold anything up.
I think back to the PS2 generation where you had AAA titles but you had a ton of AA games to hold all of that up. No one is going to invest $600 in a console if there's only a handful of titles a year because your devs are tied up in some 6 year project.
I think back to the PS2 generation where you had AAA titles but you had a ton of AA games to hold all of that up. No one is going to invest $600 in a console if there's only a handful of titles a year because your devs are tied up in some 6 year project.
Astray
Member
The problem with AA is it's not high budget enough to make a real splash (because they get compared to AAAs with far more marketing and scope), nor are they as cheap to make as indies.
AAs are getting squeezed from top and bottom from a budget standpoint. That's the real problem.
These two companies couldn't be further apart in almost every way.
If anything, Ubisoft still pushes out lower-end AAA and AA games like PoP: Lost Crown, Riders Republic etc.. Which did absolutely nothing for them at all.
AAs are getting squeezed from top and bottom from a budget standpoint. That's the real problem.
Remarkably uninformed opinion.Sony on its way to take Ubisofts place
These two companies couldn't be further apart in almost every way.
If anything, Ubisoft still pushes out lower-end AAA and AA games like PoP: Lost Crown, Riders Republic etc.. Which did absolutely nothing for them at all.
nial
Member
I think Japan Studio was gearing up to that direction, anyway. Their pre-predecessors were the ones that made Sony's most expensive games on the PS1 era, i.e. Gran Turismo 1 and The Legend of Dragoon. The staff of the former was moved onto a newly-established subsidiary to continue the series (Polyphony Digital), while the latter was a commercial failure that most likely scared SCEI management of attempting to do anything like that again. Fast forward to 15 years later, The Last Guardian was a high-end project that took a full decade to realize (something you DON'T want with smaller games, especially), Gravity Rush 2 was selling itself as a bigger, grand sequel, while Toyama later started to work on a AAA horror game that never came into fruition. You look at their output from this era, and begin to wonder what exactly were the smaller games aside from their set of 3D platformers (Knack 1/2, Astro Bot Rescue Mission) and a remake (Shadow of the Colossus).
If it weren't for Team Asobi, we'd probably be having nu-Resident Evil clones coming from Sony Japan instead. not really, but they would have eventually gone all into AAA.
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Ask them if they bought Puppeteer day1, they'll say no and bought GTAV. And if I'm not mistaken Puppeteer was only $40... Also, people won't stop asking for Bloodborne remake/remaster/sequel but go ask them if they bought Demon's Souls remake. Yeah, didn't think so. That's why Japan Studio closed.
Why did you get a PS5 then? Also, didn't answer my question. I guess that means zero....
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bender
What time is it?
Edited: Bad decision by Sony, but no used crying on spilled milk. But good thing Sony is changing back direction and going back to its roots. South Korea, India, Middle East, and China hero project are a good start and it is starting to bear fruit. I still hope for revival of OG PS RPG exclusives like Wild arms, Alundra, Legend of Dragoon, Dark Cloud, and Legend of Legaia and stay as exclusives. And also to get back the Japan market I think the Sony OG rpg's revival will help.
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nial
Member
Ni no Kuni is not Sony.
Killer8
Member
I kind of stopped caring about Japan Studio's closure in the last few years. Yes, they made some absolute bangers but when you look at the aftermath, everyone seems to have landed on their feet:
Astro Bot was so good it was GOTY.
Gran Turismo is still being made by Polyphony and is the best it's been in years.
Project Robot by GenDesign with Epic's backing is giving us more Ueda goodness.
Keiichiro Toyama was able to scrape enough money together to fund Slitterhead.
Sony bought Bluepoint after Demon's Souls remake came out.
Ratatan is a solid spiritual successor to Patapon and now we're getting Patapon 1+2 Replay.
Clap Hanz are still making golf games and now we're getting new(-ish) Everybody's Golf too.
Licensing out the Japan Studio IPs to Bamco is one of the best things Sony have done of late. And really now that Japan has generally speaking gotten their act together in the last decade, we've got plenty of Japanese output.
With hybrid handhelds, we've also long since evolved past the need to have developers pumping out dedicated handheld games, which Japan Studio were mostly doing in the late 2000s / early 2010s.
Astro Bot was so good it was GOTY.
Gran Turismo is still being made by Polyphony and is the best it's been in years.
Project Robot by GenDesign with Epic's backing is giving us more Ueda goodness.
Keiichiro Toyama was able to scrape enough money together to fund Slitterhead.
Sony bought Bluepoint after Demon's Souls remake came out.
Ratatan is a solid spiritual successor to Patapon and now we're getting Patapon 1+2 Replay.
Clap Hanz are still making golf games and now we're getting new(-ish) Everybody's Golf too.
Licensing out the Japan Studio IPs to Bamco is one of the best things Sony have done of late. And really now that Japan has generally speaking gotten their act together in the last decade, we've got plenty of Japanese output.
With hybrid handhelds, we've also long since evolved past the need to have developers pumping out dedicated handheld games, which Japan Studio were mostly doing in the late 2000s / early 2010s.
Topher
Identifies as young
"Meanwhile, SIE has changed its role as a first-party developer, moving away from selling software that takes advantage of hardware and makes the hardware stand out.
Yoshida: But when I look back at it after that, I think, "Something has changed again."
In the past, the first-party mission was to make the platform successful, and that included marketing.
However, last year our roles were divided and we were told to continue to grow as a first party.
Now there is a PC version, but in my time it was prohibited to release it on PC. Small-scale digital versions were okay, but AAA titles were only allowed to be released on PlayStation.
However, when we thought about first-party games as a standalone business, we decided it was okay to release them on PC.
Online games require a certain number of users, so they can be released on PC at the same time, and even if it's a single-player game, after a year or two has passed, you can release it on PC and make some more money.
For example, in regions like China where PCs are more popular than consoles, users may not immediately purchase a console piece of hardware, but we can first get them familiar with the game IP and tell them, "PlayStation is the only place you can play new games based on that IP," which will pave the way for the future of consoles.
The strategy has completely changed.
The role of first-party games and what is expected of them has changed, so I feel that there may now be a role for small-scale games like AA.
However, the good thing about consoles is that they can be fully tuned, assuming that all users have the same environment. I don't think that the role of consoles will disappear even if PCs become more widespread."
Yoshida: But when I look back at it after that, I think, "Something has changed again."
In the past, the first-party mission was to make the platform successful, and that included marketing.
However, last year our roles were divided and we were told to continue to grow as a first party.
Now there is a PC version, but in my time it was prohibited to release it on PC. Small-scale digital versions were okay, but AAA titles were only allowed to be released on PlayStation.
However, when we thought about first-party games as a standalone business, we decided it was okay to release them on PC.
Online games require a certain number of users, so they can be released on PC at the same time, and even if it's a single-player game, after a year or two has passed, you can release it on PC and make some more money.
For example, in regions like China where PCs are more popular than consoles, users may not immediately purchase a console piece of hardware, but we can first get them familiar with the game IP and tell them, "PlayStation is the only place you can play new games based on that IP," which will pave the way for the future of consoles.
The strategy has completely changed.
The role of first-party games and what is expected of them has changed, so I feel that there may now be a role for small-scale games like AA.
However, the good thing about consoles is that they can be fully tuned, assuming that all users have the same environment. I don't think that the role of consoles will disappear even if PCs become more widespread."
nial
Member
I wish, their output on PS Vita was terrible. We had ONE game, and it was Gravity Rush.
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Sorry, yes you are right I forgot. Thank you for the reminder. It is now edited.
Ryu_Joestar
Member
Yeah, remind me how The Lost Crown team is still kicking, oh right, it was disbanded and it's sequel denied because it didn't meet sales expectations
Do your homework before saying someone else is uninformed
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Buggy Loop
Gold Member
Biggest mistake they've ever done. There was a dude here on neogaf trying to convince me its all fine and dandy because of Astrobot. Dude, it could have had Japan studio AND astrobot.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Probably because Puppeteer is too weird of a game, and Knack 1 and 2 both got awful reviews with an odd looking mascot.
When people want AA games, they want something more like these in terms of production values or gameplay. Not AAA 7 years to make budget busters, but not indie-ish low budget stuff. I quickly did a google search.
10 AA Games With AAA Appeal
Would you believe it if I told you there are 10 AA games with AAA appeal?
www.dualshockers.com
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Killer8
Member
If we're counting collaborations then there was also Soul Sacrifice and Freedom Wars. The latter got licensed to Bamco and ported to PC, which gives hope for the former coming back.
Dorfdad
Gold Member
Nintendo will be the biggest winner of these kinda of companies. They seem to fit perfectly on their preferences for switch 2 games. I’m sure we will see some gems from AA become more AAA on switch 2Executives gonna executive
Nothing wrong with having studios making smaller scale/scope games that have quicker turnarounds than your typical 6~7 AAA multi-hundred million budgeted games.
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
Media Molecule Kitchen | The Heart of the Molecule
Find out more about how we nourish our Molecules, with delicious, wholesome food, friendly conversation and laughter.
www.mediamolecule.com
So why are they still funding whatever the hell is going on here?
bender
What time is it?
Probably because Puppeteer is too weird of a game, and Knack 1 and 2 both got awful reviews with an odd looking mascot.
When people want AA games, they want something more like these in terms of production values or gameplay. Not AAA 7 years to make budget busters, but not indie-ish low budget stuff. I quickly did a google search.
10 AA Games With AAA Appeal
Would you believe it if I told you there are 10 AA games with AAA appeal?
I wouldn't consider Puppeteer weird. I think it was more of a victim of poor timing and lack of marketing. Would have been a better launch title than Knack and the fact that Knack got a sequel is almost criminal.
Represent.
Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Then why not give them an AAA budget?
nial
Member
Collaborations were handled by a totally different studio at the time (led by Masami Yamamoto). In terms of internal development, SCEI had LocoRoco 1/2 (+ Midnight Carnival), three Talkman games (+ two weird spin-offs), Byte Hell 2000 and The Eye of Judgment: Legends. It was a total downgrade.
There's nothing too weird about Puppeteer, lol. Knack 2 had alright reviews and was pretty decent.
hemo memo
You can't die before your death
The Switch is a haven for indie and AA games, and Switch 2 will likely continue that trend. If you're finding AAA releases uninspired, you're not alone. That segment of the industry is producing a lot of repetitive content. The creative energy is definitely in the indie and AA space.
Hideous Snake
Gold Member
I will never forgive them for shutting down Sony Japan Studio. I loved all their games
But yeah, go ahead and chase your shite AAA GaaS games. LUL
But yeah, go ahead and chase your shite AAA GaaS games. LUL
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Ramiro_Rodriguez
Neo Member
Enough successful and great AA games like RoboCop, the Sniper Elite games, A plague tale 1+2 and so on comes into my mind.
What is with No Man's Sky?
I also loved the old Sony title like Unfinished Swan or Journey.
But Sony only wants The Last of Us Part III, God of War 7 etc.
Games that need how many years and how many hundreds of millions of dollar to develop?
What is with No Man's Sky?
I also loved the old Sony title like Unfinished Swan or Journey.
But Sony only wants The Last of Us Part III, God of War 7 etc.
Games that need how many years and how many hundreds of millions of dollar to develop?
It's not about what's 'wrong' with it - it's that it's seen as irrelevant to the organisation when those projects are making a single to max double digit million revenues.
I've seen the exact same mentality as far back as 2009 in how big console publishers quantified not investing into mobile at the time - it was seen as too low margins to be worth it.
Same mindset is also repeated in acquisitions all the time - where anything below a certain revenue threshold is seen as disposable (and gets promptly killed after acquisitions) even when it's 100% profitable (obviously not specific to games, prevalent across all of tech businesses). There are some genuinely cool IPs/tech that has been lost to time because of these.
There are obvious flaws in said 'logic' of course - but you have to also realise these are decisions made by 'corporations' not humans - so logic doesn't apply the same way.
Puppeteer had visibly better production values than 90% of that list. And it's definitely not the weirdest thing on the list either if you stack it all together.
And Knack games were obviously trying really hard to be AAA for kids (not with great success - but calling it what it is).
Besides - most Sony's 'AA' efforts had the same (lack of) commercial impact as the above - Knack is probably on of the biggest (commercially) from their entire 20 year portfolio.
Fundamentally most software in this budget bracket is ignored by the mainstream, not just what Sony produce(d).
Pitches are made the way they are made. Noone will go 'I like your 10M idea so I'll give you 500M to make it instead' unless it's part of the pitch.
But this is Japan Studio and their line of work was well known, all these people (allegedly) outraged by their closure shouldn't have been expecting anything that different.Probably because Puppeteer is too weird of a game, and Knack 1 and 2 both got awful reviews with an odd looking mascot.
When people want AA games, they want something more like these in terms of production values or gameplay. Not AAA 7 years to make budget busters, but not indie-ish low budget stuff. I quickly did a google search.
10 AA Games With AAA Appeal
Would you believe it if I told you there are 10 AA games with AAA appeal?
They did other kinds of games besides cute character games, they made Gravity Rush 2 for PS4, an 80 metacritic game and follow-up to an (allegedly) beloved game. Did anybody buy that one? No. So it gets shuttered.
Astray
Member
That's exactly what I'm saying though?
AA games can't pay the bills for anyone so the efforts go either AAA or Indie with no real in-between.
These games don't just exist for us to wishlist and forget about them. Each game is a financial undertaking of its own with expectations of not losing money, if not outright making it. And AA loses companies money atm because consumers are complaining online about their absence, yet won't pay up when they get released.
Syphon Filter
Member
most triple a titles fail, this makes no sense. aa is less risky if anything.
Astray
Member
No they don't.
The biggest piece of evidence of what I'm saying is people citing AAAs like Astrobot or Space Marine 2 as examples of successful AAs that the industry needs to follow.
What's actually giving you this perception is AAAs are more covered by the press and Youtubers, so when one fails you hear everywhere about it, but no one covers AAs, so 10 or 20 of them can fail in a given year and you don't hear a peep.