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[Tiago Rodrigues]

Like Japan Studio releases broke record after record.

People still think these companies are running charities?

The same people complaining about Sony closing this studio are the ones that complain every time theres a non-AAA title on a state of play. Besides no one was buying these games.

 

[Ryu_Joestar]

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.

Astro Bot it's not an AAA though, it's the quintessential definition of an AA. That's why it had success, because it's a simple concept made by creative people on a budget without multimillionnaire efforts behind it, sold at a cheap affordable price

Money does not always equal quality

 

[Three]

Shunning the AA market was a big mistake.

Unfortunately the population did, not them. It was mostly driven by the collapse of retail and the rise of subscriptions. Most people think AA should be 'free' now and it usually hardly sells at all.

 

[yurinka]

It isn't true.

After the 2021 restructuring (not closure) that team worked in AA games like Astro Bot, Stellar Blade, Lost Soul Aside or Convallaria, plus found out a (profitable?) way to bring back Freedom Wars, Patapon or Everybody's Golf. While other Sony teams did other AA projects like Lego Horizon, Horizon CoM, Firewall Ultra, Until Dawn remake or Midnight Murder Club.

And before the restructuring Japan Studio had a vice president of mobile that got fired. Not AA: mobile.

If something maybe the restructuring was due to having a lot of unprofitable projects at Japan Studio, and not being able to release a single internally developed sales hit in 30 years, so maybe had to put some order there to turn it into a profitable studio.

 

[ArtHands]

most triple a titles fail, this makes no sense. aa is less risky if anything.

Less risky means nothing when Playstation audience doesn’t buy them, as they solely focus on AAA games, unlike other platforms like Nintendo and Steam where the focus is split between indie, AA and AAA in a healthier ratio. Where even indie game like R.E.P.O that you never heard of here, can easily sell 3.1m under 3 weeks on Steam.

Playstation fans base their knowledge and exposure pretty much on advertisement by Sony and media outlets, which is AAA oriented. Other platforms like Nintendo and Steam base their purchases on actual words of mouths. Games like Tamagotchi and Clap Hanz Golf are more welcomed on these platforms but not as well receives by Playstation players.

 

[ElCasual]

Translation *Ryan and Hulst are morons*

 

[SkylineRKR]

Astro Bot and Returnal are the best PS5 exclusives imo. I would consider both of these AA.

 

[yurinka]

most triple a titles fail, this makes no sense. aa is less risky if anything.

There are many that fail, but the percentage of success is way higher in AAA than in AA or specially indie.

 

[ArtHands]

with Sony focusing more on AAA, this means an unstoppable path towards increasing dev budget, and the increasing need to release on more platforms like Steam to recoup the development cost.

 

[Topher]

Unfortunately the population did, not them. It was mostly driven by the collapse of retail and the rise of subscriptions. Most people think AA should be 'free' now and it usually hardly sells at all.

I think AA games have evolved into something bigger than what they were last gen, but still far cheaper to make. Such as Astro Bot. Either way, Sony used to be fine with sub-AAA games that were funded primarily with the big hits. That and live service is what has changed most for Sony from last gen to this and personally, I don't think that has been a change for the better.

 

[Three]

Less risky means nothing when Playstation audience doesn’t buy them, as they solely focus on AAA games, unlike other platforms like Nintendo and Steam where the focus is split between indie, AA and AAA in a healthier ratio. Where even indie game like R.E.P.O that you never heard of here, can easily sell 3.1m under 3 weeks on Steam.

Playstation fans base their knowledge and exposure pretty much on advertisement by Sony and media outlets, which is AAA oriented. Other platforms like Nintendo and Steam base their purchases on actual words of mouths. Games like Tamagotchi and Clap Hanz Golf are more welcomed on these platforms but not as well receives by Playstation players.

It's comical of you to mention a store called steam when Valve produce absolutely fuck all in comparison. Unless you're saying third party games don't sell on PSN what exactly is the point of mentioning third party stuff? There are countless hits that were born on PSN Rocket league and fall guys to name a couple.

 

[Ryu_Joestar]

Less risky means nothing when Playstation audience doesn’t buy them, as they solely focus on AAA games, unlike other platforms like Nintendo and Steam where the focus is split between indie, AA and AAA in a healthier ratio. Where even indie game like R.E.P.O that you never heard of here, can easily sell 3.1m under 3 weeks on Steam.

Playstation fans base their knowledge and exposure pretty much on advertisement by Sony and media outlets, which is AAA oriented. Other platforms like Nintendo and Steam base their purchases on actual words of mouths. Games like Tamagotchi and Clap Hanz Golf are more welcomed on these platforms but not as well receives by Playstation players.

 

[RCU005]

Thats ONLY game liked from Sony for the entire PS5 generation.

Ironic isn't it. This reflect how out of touch they are this generation with their obsession for live service games.
I hope they wake up soon and start making games as they used to, to have a healthy lineup of games for PS6. The PS4 had huge hyped that leaked into the PS5 (and Sony wasted it, even though it sold well, they perception is not good anymore) but that definitely won't happen with the PS6.

 

[yurinka]

Ironic isn't it. This reflect how out of touch they are this generation with their obsession for live service games.

Most of the known Sony GaaS were greenlighted during Shuhei's era, not Hermen's era. Most of the games known to be greenlighted during Hermen's era (started late 2019, a year before this gen started) aren't GaaS.

 

[Topher]

Comparing ArtHands to Jesus. I'd tell everyone around you to stay back about 20 feet for when the lightning strikes.

 

[Astray]

Astro Bot it's not an AAA though, it's the quintessential definition of an AA. That's why it had success, because it's a simple concept made by creative people on a budget without multimillionnaire efforts behind it, sold at a cheap affordable price

Money does not always equal quality

It absolutely is AAA, on the lower end yes, but still AAA.

Why would Sony close Japan Studio citing wanting AAAs instead of AAs and then still reorg the remnants into a AA place? Does not make sense at all.

 

[Fabieter]

Good thing the gen is not over. Which *Sony* games you liked the first 4 years of PS4?

You think ps5 is better than what ps4 offered until April 2018?

 

[Three]

I think AA games have evolved into something bigger than what they were last gen, but still far cheaper to make. Such as Astro Bot. Either way, Sony used to be fine with sub-AAA games that were funded primarily with the big hits. That and live service is what has changed most for Sony from last gen to this and personally, I don't think that has been a change for the better.

This changed with the collapse of retail and the rise in subs. The collapse at retail ment it wasn't the big publishers making the AA games anymore since that moat had been broken, they were coming from independent devs now, and the rise in subs further diminished AA sales for these publishers thus increasing their risk. Every big publisher reverted to their massive IPs to stay relevant.
There is a lengthy leaked email from Phil which somewhat discusses this trend that happened:

In terms of subscriptions and the impact on larger publishers I realized that I haven't really done a good job sharing our view on the disruption AAA publishers potentially see and how their role in the industry will likely change with the growth in subscription platforms like Xbox Game Pass.

We should start with the question of why game publishers exist in the first place. And like many other forms of media the idea of a game publisher was created from an access "moat"; like movie studios locking up theater distribution, album companies locking up radio play, game publisher's scale in physical retail game sales allowed them to secure retail shelf space, in-store promotion and margin structure beyond what any individual studio could dictate when games were primary sold in retail stores. If you were a studio, you needed a AAA publisher to reach a customer at an Egghead software. [NB. Egghead Software was a brick-and-mortar retailer that went bankrupt in 2001.]

This constriction in the access from creator to consumer stayed in place for years and in that time AAA game publishers increased their control. The creation of digital storefronts like Steam, Xbox Store and PlayStation Store eventually [democratized] access for creators breaking physical retail's lock on game distribution.

AAA publishers were slow to react to this disruption. The AAA publishers did not find a way to leverage the moat that physical retail created in the digital realm in a way that had them continue their dominance of the game marketplace. They have not found a way to effectively cross promote, they have not found a way to build publisher brands that drive consumer affinity (the way Disney has in video), they did note create a social platform that would allow them reach beyond their aggregate IP [monthly active users].

Without a lock on physical distribution the role of the AAA publisher has changed and become less important in today's gaming industry. Over the past 5-7 years, the AAA publishers have tried to use production scale as their new moat. Very few companies can afford to spend the $200M an Activision or Take 2 spend to put a title like Call of Duty or Red Dead Redemption on the shelf.

These AAA publishers have, mostly, used this production scale to keep their top franchises in the top selling games each year. The issue these publishers have run into is these same production scale/cost approach hurts their ability to create new IP. The hurdle rate on new IP at these high production levels have led to risk aversion by big publishers on new IP.

You've seen a rise of AAA publishers using rented IP to try to offset the risk (Star Wars with EA, Spiderman with Sony, Avatar with Ubisoft etc). This same dynamic has obviously played out in Hollywood as well with Netflix creating more new IP than any of the movie studios. Specifically, the AAA game publishers, starting from a position of strength driven from physical retail have failed to create any real platform effect for themselves.

They effectively continue to build their scale through aggregated per game [profit and loss] hoping to maximize each new release of their existing IP. In the new world where a AAA publisher [doesn't] have real distribution leverage with consumers, they don't have production efficiencies and their new IP hit rate is not disproportionately higher than the industry average we see that the top franchises today were mostly not created by AAA game publishers. Games like Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Clash Royale, DOTA2 etc [were] all created by independent studios with full access to distribution.

Overall this, imo, is a good thing for the industry but does put AAA publishers, in a precarious spot moving forward. AAA publishers are milking their top franchises but struggling to refill their portfolio of hit franchises, most AAA publishers are riding the success of franchises created 10+ years ago.

With Xbox Game Pass we've created a new platform for AAA publishers to try to navigate. As we grow more sustained and predictable monetization of gameplay through our subscription platform we will have more insight, revenue stability and incentive to invest in new experiences to continue to drive the subscription momentum.

Yves Guillemot's, CEO of Ubisoft, comment to us was with the growth of subscriptions like XGP he will double down on creating value on his existing franchises but cut back on new risk bets as he has no mechanism like XGP that helps amortize the investment risk in any piece of content across an entire subscriber base.

UbiSoft and EA are two publishers trying to build a subscription now but kind of like their reaction to Steam 15 years ago they are not moving quickly or boldly enough to scale. They also lacked a platform like Xbox console to launch on top of launching on Xbox, as we know, gave us access to a large player base, creator base and monetization base.

We launched our new subscription platform from the existing device platform. We've offered to help AAA publishers, and we are with EA Access carried in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate this year (very possible that Ubisoft's subscription comes to XGPU as well) but overall the AAA publishers are too reluctant to put $60 retail at risk to create a more predictable revenue stream and without an existing per user monetization platform they lack real distribution.

On the flipside, the individual studio or smaller publishers see XGP as an incredible way for a studio to get their IP in front of millions of players, offset risk by selling us an XGP window for their title, and gain the viral exposure that gameplay on our network provides. The vast majority of XGP's early release, non [first party] games are independent studios offsetting their title risk by working with us on a window and doing so successfully.

XGP and our ID@Xbox program are two main reasons why we've seen a 3x increase in developers on Xbox this generation compared to the 360 generation. Circling back to [Take-Two Interactive] on Friday. They have supported us with XGP, they were a launch partner and continue to participate, even with their biggest game Grand Theft Auto. They are interested in bringing their second biggest franchise, Red Dead Redemption, to XGP as well. But they are also concerned about the transition and how XGP will impact their long term economics and if they are being honest on Friday this should come up.

Much like how Netflix disrupted video, gaming subscriptions will disrupt the AAA publishers, whether it's our subscription, Apple Arcade or Amazon's coming subscription, this change is coming. Our goal is to find a way to both grow our subscription (which is our new platform) and help the AAA publishers build towards a successful future. For publishers with 2-3 scale franchises that's a difficult transition.

Again, taking a clue from Hollywood, it's not clear how a standalone subscale media publisher grows is this world without adapting to new paradigms or getting consolidated but we believe we can help a Take 2 by increasing monetizable [total addressable market] across more endpoints inside of a global platform like Xbox Game Pass (inclusive of xCloud).

I'm not sure how deep the discussion with Take 2 will go on Friday but this would be a good discussion with them. They are living the disruption to their model and we are hoping this will come through. They are a good partner but also leery of these changes. Our team has these discussions with publishers all the time and we always learn from our partners as they try to navigate the moving ecosystems.

Astrobot while great is somewhere between AA and AAA. its sales were 1.5M one month after launch which isn't bad at all considering but it's not really reaching the blockbuster AAA sellers yet. Love that the game was created though and I hope it goes on to outsell some of the bigger games. For every astrobot though there is a gravity rush, an until dawn. Games that didn't sell enough in todays market. It's why licensing their games and games like stellar blade and Rise of the Ronin make sense now. Others are creating those AA-low AAA games nowadays and they can monetise it outside of the platform.

 

[Fafalada]

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?

One of these is not like the others - (NMS if I'm not being clear - has done more commercially than the rest of the list combined).
I mean it's fine to be flexible on definition of 'success' but let's not pretend 10M seller is the same as 500k one just because budget allowed the latter to also be profitable.

Also Plague's tale and Robocop clearly just wanted to be AAA on a budget - and they mostly fail at it, though Robocop coasts by on nostalgia.

 

[lh032]

and now sony is stuck in the AAA dev cycle. I hope Sony learns the mistake.

 

[Perrott]

It's Japan Studio's fault (both the creatives themselves as well as their producers and studio head) that they failed to get to their Horizon: Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima or even Days Gone moment over the course of the PS4 generation.

You can make deeply creative shit that targets a very specific audience... and still sell. See Persona, Yakuza, NieR, etc.

Japan Studio in general just failed, time and again, in that regard... but Team Asobi in particular did not, hence why they're still around.

 

[Topher]

This changed with the collapse of retail and the rise in subs. The collapse at retail ment it wasn't the big publishers making the AA games anymore since that moat had been broken, they were coming from independent devs now, and the rise in subs further diminished AA sales for these publishers thus increasing their risk. Every big publisher reverted to their massive IPs to stay relevant.

Live service was even more of a risk. I think Sony's new leadership saw bigger dollar signs like so many others trying to be the next Fortnite and sacrificed AA as part of that overall realignment. I think it was all unnecessary. Sony could have continued on what was built with PS4 and kept pushing the AAA games alongside AA and A games. They simply choose a different path.

 

[Zacfoldor]

 

[Nowa]

Japan Studio in general just failed, time and again, in that regard... but Team Asobi in particular did not, hence why they're still around.

Maybe Japan studio "in general" would make good games if they didn't have to help making slop remakes with Bluepoint.

 

[near]

I miss the old Sony, straight from the 'Go Sony
Chop up the soul Sony, set on his goals Sony
I hate the new Sony, the bad mood Sony
The always rude Sony, spaz in the news Sony
I miss the sweet Sony, chop up the beats Sony
I gotta to say at that time I'd like to meet Sony

 

[Three]

Live service was even more of a risk. I think Sony's new leadership saw bigger dollar signs like so many others trying to be the next Fortnite and sacrificed AA as part of that overall realignment. I think it was all unnecessary. Sony could have continued on what was built with PS4 and kept pushing the AAA games alongside AA and A games. They simply choose a different path.

True, Live service was also a risk, one where they were aware most would fail but worth taking on the off chance one is a hit. I do think it was the PS4 gen which cemented the idea that AA games were not working for them though. It was the gen where their AA sales and new IP creation did not amount to anything substantial and sales collapsed in favour of other smaller pubs/developers releasing digital into these stores. The AA market became far more democratized while having lower sales (a lot of them going into subs instead now). Now the AA market is not really coming from the big publishers. That's why people complain about Activision becoming a CoD factory, why Ubisoft is splintering off their biggest IPs and creating far less AA, why EA barely makes anything AA anymore either and mostly relies on the likes of EAFC and Madden, and why Take 2 sold Private Division. Still, it doesn't mean that new higher budget AA IPs are out of the question for PS studios. We are getting games like Saros but the AA market collapsed for the big publishers, for better or worse.

 

[Fafalada]

I think it was all unnecessary. Sony could have continued on what was built with PS4 and kept pushing the AAA games alongside AA and A games. They simply choose a different path.

Chasing Live Service dates back 'at least' into 2008 when Riccitiello did his famous 'burning platform' speech which was specifically outlying why the existing business model was doomed (or rather - that's when western publishers started to take note of it anyway).

Now obviously - nearly 2 decades on, history tells a different story on both (the burning platform is still there and actually bigger than it's ever been, and live-service space, while also significantly larger than it's ever been - was fraught with poorly understood risks then, and it's still fraught with it today - and publishers keep repeating the same mistakes decade on decade).
But the platform 'is' still burning, and live service popularity is only getting bigger with ever year - so this isn't going away anytime soon.

 

[ArtHands]

It's comical of you to mention a store called steam when Valve produce absolutely fuck all in comparison. Unless you're saying third party games don't sell on PSN what exactly is the point of mentioning third party stuff? There are countless hits that were born on PSN Rocket league and fall guys to name a couple.

Rocket League launches as a PS Plus Instant Game Collection, while Fall Guys sold 10 million copies on Steam. You literally proved my point.

Playstation doesn't really get organic successes on the regular without advertisement, unlike on Steam or Switch with examples like Vampire Survivors, Phasmophobia, Among Us, Miside, Crow Country, Balatro etc.

 

[Three]

Rocket League launches as a PS Plus Instant Game Collection, while Fall Guys sold 10 million copies on Steam. You literally proved my point.

Playstation doesn't really get organic successes on the regular without advertisement, unlike on Steam or Switch with examples like Vampire Survivors, Phasmophobia, Among Us, Miside, Crow Country, Balatro etc.

You think steam doesn't advertise? It has massive banners on launch. As for indies like those you mentioned not getting organic successes maybe you want to actually look at what the source of this thread was saying:

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/indie-games-were-selling-better-on-playstation-than-any-other-platform-2024.1680944/

 

[Shadowstar39]

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.

What og rpg revival are you talking about? As much as I would love that, I don't see it happening unless you know something we all don't. It would be like me wishing for Konami to make sotn2, or remaster suikoden 3 to 5, it's never going to happen.

If anyone is reviving jrpgs and smaller games in general it's Nintendo. Hell Nintendo just had patapon, hot shots golf, and a slew of jrpgs at their directthe first two used to be Sony exclusive.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

You think steam doesn't advertise? It has massive banners on launch. As for indies like those you mentioned not getting organic successes maybe you want to actually look at what the source of this thread was saying:

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/indie-games-were-selling-better-on-playstation-than-any-other-platform-2024.1680944/

Cmon Three.

There's a big difference between console makers doing big splashy shows, store promos, TV ads, and whatever marketing they can spend money on vs. lots of Steam games whose biggest promo is a self made YT trailer. Yet somehow some games get millions of copies sold based on puny corporate marketing. Probably based on just word of mouth and PC gamers hyping stuff themselves.

 

[Three]

Cmon Three.

There's a big difference between console makers doing big splashy shows, store promos, TV ads, and whatever marketing they can spend money on vs. lots of Steam games whose biggest promo is a self made YT trailer. Yet somehow some games get millions of copies sold based on puny corporate marketing. Probably based on just word of mouth and PC gamers hyping stuff themselves.

Splashy shows (are they even splashy anymore?) don't get more coverage than store promos and Steam has store promos so I'm not sure why you're mentioning that. Steam has shows now too but really TV marketing is usually game specific anyway with a final "available on..." at the end, not platform specific. Yes people hype stuff themselves too but are we suggesting this doesn't happen on PS? It does. Even massive hits like Rocket league and Fortnite started like this at some point on PS.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

Shunning the AA market was a big mistake.

So, was putting Westerners in charge of the brand, of course, that’s my own opinion.

 

[Topher]

So was putting Westerners in charge of the brand, of course that’s my own opinion.

Wish Yosh would have had a chance to lead PS. I wonder if he is considered "too nice" for that though.

 

[FreeY$L]

Can you blame them? most of Japan's studios title were either bombs or uninteresting. No one thought Tokyo Jungle was revolutionary or quirky, and i bought that shit day 1, Gravity Rush was marketed heavily with the Vita, still bombed, it was ported to the PS4 and given a sequel, still bombed. Gamers want the envelope pushed with every release, and AA titles go in the opposite direction of that inherently.

 

[ArtHands]

Cmon Three.

There's a big difference between console makers doing big splashy shows, store promos, TV ads, and whatever marketing they can spend money on vs. lots of Steam games whose biggest promo is a self made YT trailer. Yet somehow some games get millions of copies sold based on puny corporate marketing. Probably based on just word of mouth and PC gamers hyping stuff themselves.

This is crazy that we actually have to spell that out to explain to the clueless people.

 

[Little Chicken]

That's a shame.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Splashy shows (are they even splashy anymore?) don't get more coverage than store promos and Steam has store promos so I'm not sure why you're mentioning that. Steam has shows now too but really TV marketing is usually game specific anyway with a final "available on..." at the end, not platform specific. Yes people hype stuff themselves too but are we suggesting this doesn't happen on PS? It does. Even massive hits like Rocket league and Fortnite started like this at some point on PS.

I'm talking store promos as in retail which is a very console thing, since PC games on disc died probably 10+ years ago.

Though console games have gone digital a lot, there's still physical buyers and gamers trading in old games for new games which is also a console boost since PC gamers cant do that.

 

[Saber]

Damn sad. One of Sony most acclaimed games is totally at that level, while most trend GaaS garbage games failed.. Not everything should be focusing on high stakes, AA and A games can exist if you stop being so fucking greedy.

 

[kazuyamishima]

Users didn’t want A or AA games during the PS3 era and some of the PS4 era, they sold like Shit because users didn’t support them (including many of the games complaining in this thread).

But those games really existed then, they possible won’t exist in the near future due to past experiences.

 

[QLQ]

You think ps5 is better than what ps4 offered until April 2018?

Let's leave it at first 4 years.

PS4: 2013-2017
PS5: 2020-2024

I'm not saying better necessarily. But was it really that much 1st party output from Sony for PS4 those years? Was it better?

PS4: Infamous, Killzone SF, Knack, The Order 1886, Driveclub, Ratchet & Clank remake, GT Sport, Uncharted 4, Horizon FW, The Last Guardian

PS5: Demon's Souls remake, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank RA, Returnal, Horizon FW, GT7, God of War Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, Helldivers 2, Concord, Astro Bot.

Did I miss anything? Did I make a mistake? You tell me what's so different between those two or why Sony's output for PS4 those years is definitely superior.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

Let's leave it at first 4 years.

PS4: 2013-2017
PS5: 2020-2024

I'm not saying better necessarily. But was it really that much 1st party output from Sony for PS4 those years? Was it better?

PS4: Infamous, Killzone SF, Knack, The Order 1886, Driveclub, Ratchet & Clank remake, GT Sport, Uncharted 4, Horizon FW, The Last Guardian

PS5: Demon's Souls remake, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank RA, Returnal, Horizon FW, GT7, God of War Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, Helldivers 2, Concord, Astro Bot.

Did I miss anything? Did I make a mistake? You tell me what's so different between those two or why Sony's output for PS4 those years is definitely superior.

Crossed out remakes and cross-gen games you could have played on PS4.

 

[Mike Zhang]

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.

I bought Puppeteer day 1. The game literaly got no promtion

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

People a bit delusional about what AA games really are. Astro is AAA and a mascot game with big global marketing. Returnal is AAA, just made by a smaller team. Stellar Blade is absolutely AAA by Korean standards. Etc.

Wanna see where true AA ended up this gen? Look at Atomfall, a buggy yet charming game that is available on sub service day one, because it’s getting harder to make a profit somewhere in between.

It’s not that Sony was stupid or harsh. It’s the market that moved on. Most of Japan Studio still there in form of Xdev and Team Asobi too. And let’s be honest, Japan Studio was kinda in a rough spot after a whole series of bomba games like Knack 2 and Gravity Rush 2.

 

[Barakov]

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?

Good question. I've always felt Media Molecule was horrifically overrated. The LBP games were interesting from a user created content angle but Media Molecule shouldn't have been given a pass while some other studios under the Playstation banner were shut down.

At the very least Sony is licensing out some of their old IPs so at the very least fans of those games are getting something.

 

[ArtHands]

Crossed out remakes and cross-gen games you could have played on PS4.

These crossbuy PS4/5 games are counted as PS5 exclusive games for some people.

 

[Perrott]

Maybe Japan studio "in general" would make good games if they didn't have to help making slop remakes with Bluepoint.

More like Bluepoint helping Japan Studio make the remakes. Creatively, it was an internally-led effort, although technically externally executed.

 

[awwr999999]

The same people complaining about Sony closing this studio are the ones that complain every time theres a non-AAA title on a state of play. Besides no one was buying these games.

Buying non-AAA games on PSN is a high risk activity - there's almost nothing worse than getting stuck with a $60 game you don't like and won't play.
When PS adopts Steam's 2hr return policy and that risk is removed AA game sales will skyrocket.
Great unique games (like SoTC that have no genre and can't be compared to existing games) will become more popular as users venture outside of their comfort zone.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

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?

Why are you asking me? I don't run Playstation.

 

[Durin]

Just seems like they don't know how to scale marketing for AA titles so they overspend, they don't produce enough of them to let some fail and others graduate to bigger budgets, and they want the bigger return potential that AAA can (maybe just maybe) achieve.

Just sucks because I think focusing so much on AAA means Sony won't even bother touching whole genres again, because they don't consistently enough yield mainstream sales.

I miss the PS2 era, peak Sony.