PlayStation Cancels Live Service Games, Closes Studio, Layoffs For 900 Employees
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- Опубліковано 12 чер 2024
- It's a tough day in the PlayStation landscape, as SIE confirms they will reducing their workforce by about 8%, or 900 staff. Sony also says they'll be cancelling several games across PS Studios, and closing down London Studio. Only two months into 2024 and the games industry has been brutal, with layoffs now in the thousands. Sony wasn't going to be isolated from the growing pressure of generating healthy returns and growth for shareholders, and now the consequences have arrived. Let's discuss the news and what it might mean long-term.
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#PS5 #PlayStation5 #Sony - Ігри
I miss the days when multiplayer was a bonus with a single player game
I miss uncharted 2-3 multiplayer mode
@@rjmoney__4s was azz huh
@@rjmoney__ And uncharted 4, and the last of us!
Resistance 2 came with a separate Co op campaign and multiplayer. It was so good.
I miss life 10 years ago if it gets any worse out here idk might be time for the eternal slumber never stress again sounds pretty damn good about now
Back in 2012 (I think) Nintendo was in dire straits and instead of laying people off Itwata took a 30% pay cut. We need more CEOs like that. Rest in peace.
Not 30, 50% actually. All because he'd rather slash his own salary than have to make the decision to lay off people and lower overall employee morale and livelihood. He definitely knew what it felt like from that perspective considering he had his start as a game developer before becoming a corporate exec
@@icedcapplord710 oh wow. He wasn’t the only executive to take a pay cut too I think
He actually took a 50% pay cut, not once, but twice across his career as CEO. And he wasn’t the only executive at Nintendo to reduce their salaries.
I’m sure that was more of a gesture. His 50% pay cut probably didn’t do a whole lot
If I remember once this was more solidarity than an attempt to save the staff? People from Nintendo were still laid off I believe.
That London studio closing really hits me especially. Im currently a 2nd year games dev University student in the UK, and we just had a guest lecture from a someone at PlayStation London last week. To see and hear the excitement only for this to happen is awful...
I've heard they were also a pretty good studio for Internships and entry level roles at a respectable studio
this must mean it was planned out a couple months ago must have just kept that from the employees
Same thing happened to me when I was 3 months from graduating 9 years ago. SOE sold to Daybreak and 2000 senior devs where fired. We lost our internships and our prototype programs. I knew then that freelance and Indie was the future. Make sure you have a strong portfolio, the degree means absolutely nothing and look into self employment. When you graduate, work hard on all of your weaknesses and anything you didn't learn while you were in school. This industry is very fickle and there have been way too many mass layoffs all the way up to the top devs you admired.
@ZephrusPrime Honestly, it's scary. My friends and I keep seeing these layoffs left, right, and centre. We're even doubting if we can get a job after we graduate without thinking of potential layoffs in the future. Luckily, we're potentially thinking of making our own little company in the future. Its terrifying, but yeah, I can't exactly give up at this stage. So, I'll keep going!
All the best mate. 🙏🏼
Spider man 2 costing $315 million is absolutely ridiculous. Its obvious these studios are out of control and wasting money
There’s no way a sequel should cost that much
@Packin-Heat yea this is gotten out of hand
Agree, and for what? The game plays almost identically as the first one. They need put breaks on these AAA 300 million budgets
PlayStations interactive movie games were cool on the ps3. But we need cool new mechanics & AI. Shiny realistic graphics are beyond boring now
I remember when shenmue was the most expensive game ever produced at $70 million ,the current production costs just aren't sustainable we need to go back to Japanese studios working 20 hours a day and sleeping in the office,I imagine today's studios have more managers than actual productive workers
Companies keep getting bigger yet keep firing their talent 🤔
this is the true illusion of Maya which people get looped to
Spending more money to make less in profit, they all got bigger during Covid when people were stuck at home playing videogames. Layoffs suck but were inevitable.
Bad management and poor decision making. Could have been easily avoided if corporate greed wasn’t the factor running business.
+ live service games are getting cancelled because they aren’t profitable - the only reason they were being made is to make money indefinitely - and are leading to layoffs.
@@kill3rbyysightThis sentence is false. This illusion is true.
@@tb1235 this is incorrect. During Covid, all companies hired contractors because they knew this growth would be unsustainable. The employees being let go now are actual workers from well before covid.
Really sad to hear about London Studio. Singstar was a big part of my childhood
also the getaway 1,2
LOL yeah those get away games they were definitely going to come out one day
I have feeling Sucker Punch might be next
EyeToy Play for me and my sister. Funny how Kinect gets so much credit when EyeToy basically did all that a whole console generation earlier
@@1992TheDiamondWolf dont worry sucker punch wont go anywhere. the next one could be media molecule. or bend studio
Jim Ryan was at London Studios 5 days ago. Someone took a picture. One big happy family. Bet they didn't see this coming.
he knew
he likely discussed it with their leadership if he showed up there
Ceo probably scooping the place out to see if there was any work being done or if the budget was allocated appropriately. Looks like it wasn't.
@@strideredzThese decisions are made months in advance. He wouldn’t have made this decision based on a studio visit five days ago.
The visit was most likely to communicate the news and next steps to senior leadership in person.
What a shame! That studio did the WIPEOUT franchise? I had hopes for a new game in the future 🙃 they always released amazing games, many even were launch or in the first six months. I feel so bad for them
This whole generation gaming just sucks
This is a really sad day. London Studio closing is such a disappointment. I loved playing Eyetoy and Singstar back in the day.
I assure you they weren't making profit which at the end of the day matters most.. Doesn't help they haven't released a game since 2019.
damn has it really been that long?
That's the point: Those are not relevant anymore. - Just because people are nostalgic for the past, doesn't mean it makes sense to keep studios open. - If you didn't have the internet or the internet and people on it weren't so obsessed with knowing everything, you'd never know they were getting shut down. - It doesn't matter and it shouldn't affect you.
I mainly play on Xbox but do love me some PlayStation. Have had every generation of PS since the beginning.
This channel is so good. No fanboy drama. No biased leanings though still very centric. This is the best PlayStation channel and probably the best gaming channel for no frills gaming news without the drama.
He’s too forgiving actually he downplayed sony rasing the prices of ps plus and the console in Europe
@@KnucklesWTDI agree and he seems surprised about this Sony news which most who follow the gaming industry could see it coming.
@@KnucklesWTD Microsoft is a $3 trillion richest company in the world. They have NO NEED to lay off people. Vs Sony who just lost $10 billion in stock value. Xbot clown
@@arioca Microsoft is a $3 trillion richest company in the world. They have NO NEED to lay off people. Vs Sony who just lost $10 billion in stock value. Xbot clownnn
@@KnucklesWTDlol Microsoft fanboys like you saying he’s too forgiving means he’s definitely very neutral then. 😂
London Studio. The last studio of the best games of the PS2/PS3 era and creators of Blood & Truth, a true gem on PSVR
Yeah fuckk sony
They’re a great studio yes but last of?? So many studios from PS2/3 are still around to this day
@@alvexas5510 The word is that Naughty Dog and Insomniac will be closing shop this summer.
They closed Liverpool Studios years ago too. They don't know what they are doing.
What’s bad about this is Sony brought this upon themselves. They hired those hundreds of people to develop a bunch of live service games to follow what was showing was a mostly unsustainable trend.
And then because of change in leadership and such, they then revert their actions, which lead to those hundreds losing their jobs.
Obviously I’m not business man or game dev, but could it not have been possible to divert these people to new projects, especially considering that Sony has been slowing in pace of their exclusive releases.
Sony is heading towards complete financial meltdown. Kutaragi has told Yoshida that if Things don’t stabilize for PlayStation by Q2 2025, it’ll be completely OVER with.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Mystic’s voice be a bit somber/frustrated, no doubt I’m just as frustrated as everyone else in this situation.
good news all that live service trash is canceled and now more care can go to actual games
@@yoursecrxtinshallah
I, for one am not sad to hear about live services being cancelled.
The only live service game im sad about is twisted metal because it was going to have a hybrid VR mode and im big on psvr2 gaming
@@bxile730 I'm not aware of that, it was going to be a remaster of the 2012 game with psvr2 support? That was going too be a mess to even play.
@@MGOFor3ver when we sit here and envision it, it pops up in our heads as a mess, but they did make horizon climb if the mountain, a really beautiful game. Im sure they could of made it work
REAL TALK.
#1) Paycuts for all top Sony executives. #2) Layoff a 100 devs.
#3) Focus on innovative development techniques to develop quality AA games instead of bloated AAA games. Save hundreds of millions of dollars.
#4) Consider mergers with a selective group of companies.
#5) Drop game prices back to $60. But prolong this generation years longer while hoping you can reduce console development costs. PS6 maybe 2030.
Their not gonna do this. Do yk why, because what you said actually makes sense 🗣️
😂 good luck with that
I don’t understand how they couldn’t have seen the writing on the wall. 12 live service games being proposed and some being worked on by studios who are ONLY known for their huge single player titles. Besides that, if they needed “filler” content in between their flagship releases, why not invest in those dormant IP like Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, etc. Surely you could push those out at less than 1/4 of the cost while maintaining a steady workforce.
EDIT: I guess what I'm really trying to get at is that hyper-realism in their 1st party titles needs to be toned down as I'm sure that's what is driving up the cost. They need to keep to their strengths, yes, but not at the expense at making every title look as realistic as possible (e.g., The Last of Us, Days Gone). If Nintendo is able to make do with Zelda/Mario then Sony should be able to do the same thing with those aforementioned IP. Also, if studios like Naughty Dog feel as though they "outgrew" those properties then hand it over to another 1st party studio like Insomniac to assemble a team who like working on those sorts of things. They did it with R&C so why stop them there? I'm sure there's some people working at Naughty Dog that would like to take on that task too but their company's scope of work is "limited" to developing hyper-realistic games.
Cry about it all you want, it's the devs who want to go for those graphics
@@Jake-uv4slMaybe not, it was on record when TLOU 2 was being made many devs weren't really enjoying their job. I place blame on the management and executives before any developers. Developers at these companies do what they're hired for and told to do.
Sony cannot get away with bad graphics only Nintendo is allowed
This is sad for the UK, just adds to all the bad news.
Hey, can you guys come back to the EU? Let's just act like the last 10 or so years didn't happen and be cool together again.
Bungie has been a complete dud
They were sony's biggest waste of money lol
it's not like a lot of people said so when they bought Bungie. But somehow it was the "answer" to ABK. Sure.
@@p.ukem0n327 I mean both make mediocre games at best so fair enough
@@p.ukem0n327 Exactly lol, when i saw the news i knew it was a poisoned gift lol. If you play Destiny 1 or 2, you knew this was a bad idea
Bungie sucks
Blood and Truth is such a fantastic VR game. Sad to see London Studios get shut down.
As someone who's about to get into the game industry from College, this is terrifying.
Seriously dude, dev at home. Get a job to pay bills and spend your free time polishing something up, something 2D/pixel art, that will free you to quit and make the stuff you want. It'll take time but don't go to a studio. Game dev will just become any other job if you do.
Jensen the CEO of Nvidia said on stage 2-3 days ago. The one thing he wouldn’t recommend now is learning to program. Crazy times…
Sony is preparing to pack it up for PlayStation.
@@T1tusCr0w He's also selling a product that promises that everyone can be a programmer. These tech CEO's are heavily biased and sometimes even disconnected from reality. For instance, Geoffrey Hinton in 2016 said that in 5 years, AI will take over from radiology. Its been 8 years and it's nowhere close to being true.
@@T1tusCr0wProbably because so many people are learning to program now. It's becoming oversaturated.
The bottom line - expect to see only endless sequels of Marvel games / Horizon / GoW / Ghost of Tsushima / TLOU (and maybe Uncharted).... and "second party timed exclusives". Seriously - the games have been great, it seems crazy that the industry is such a dumpster fire despite that.
Give us Bloodborne 2 Already.
The general public no longer buys games that don't look like AAA games. They keep complaining and shitting on whatever new game comes out regardless of its quality, and considering how much it costs to develop a modern game, they won't take any risks. I mean, I wouldn't if I know that I'm gonna spend millions on development and the risk of losing most of it regardless of the quality of my game is high.
Those games cost 300 million+ and take 5 years to develop. 1 game per console. Not sustainable anymore.
@@Packin-Heat Those are all still massive budgets anyway. But the bigger concern is the waiting time between games. People need to get paid and Sony needs to sales to grow. Hence their desperation to release all the games on PC now.
@@Packin-Heat Yep. Probably a lot of wastage as well. Just like the film industry.
Simple fact is these companies have been chasing trends and there has been a huge pushback from the game buying public. This is why so many live service have failed. Just look at the recent Suicide squad release. Just because Fortnite and PUBG were successful does not mean people want 100 live service games, especially considering people tend to stick with one or two. Single player and even standard MP games like COD, Battlefield, Gran Turismo or what used to be FIFA, people will happily play various games, but pure live service games they want a single game to focus on.
The industry shot itself in the foot big style out of pure greed. Now all we need is pushback on DLC and these companies will totally shit the bed.
Suicide Squad was ruined by Sweetbaby Inc, according to some UA-camrs, which
caused it to fail
Yes, I agree. They are all chasing the holy cash cow live service game because its profitability is long term (if successful), and creativity has now taken a back seat - it has reduced game diversity, yet gamers are a diverse group who each like their own genres. I for one wont touch a live service game.
They saw the huge profits from the Genshin Impact devs and decided to go the same way
Exactly. All these companies are trying to buy everything up and release 20 live service games because they’re greedy. But they always bite off more than they can chew and the people at the bottom suffer and lose their jobs. Imagine if they would’ve spent all this time developing small or sensibly budgeted titles, I’m sure we could’ve gotten some great games out of that. Now instead it’s 5+ years of work wasted
There's another point: capitalism needs continuous growth. Consoles as a market have a ceiling of users. Last gen they were able to get more money from those users. Now, they are not able to get more users or more money from them. How to grow in this scenario? Being stable is insufficient to a public company. When you can't grow revenue you need to cut costs. Following trends was a shot trying to grow beyond consoles ceiling.
Media Molecule dodged the biggest bullet
How are they still alive even.
@@paulszki maybe Sony has faith in their next project
I'm just here to say The Getaway & it's follow up Black Monday are absolute bangers.It's criminal they are stuck on the ps2 outside of emulation.
and Gangs of London on the PSP
True that now I know why I should go back to ps2
it sucks but its funny that PS fanboys that mocked MS for layoffs a few weeks ago arent keeping that same energy now when it happens to Sony. Sony lays off hundreds of staff, have upcoming games cancelled, and a london studio close so where is the media storm at to poke at Sony the way they did MS a few weeks ago lol?
Big Facts 💯
No lie here
A studio name doesn't really matter nowadays since half of the beloved studios have none of the talent left.
I think what's really frustrating is that I feel a lot of people could see these layoffs coming. Considering PlayStation was insisting "we're doing 12! live service games!", a lot of people (myself too) were like "please no this is a bad idea". It would have been a better move to start with possibly 1 or 2, but focusing on where the supposed money is has put so many incredibly talent developers/artists/people without work. I really have no idea what the future holds for the industry as a whole, because this is 100% not the end. Layoffs have been an unfortunately common thing in games for decades. But the past 10 years I feel it's just gotten worse as games have gotten bigger.
With AI coming on fast. Alot more jobs will be lost in general.
It makes no sense for them to have gone so hard on live service, if 1 or more would have succeeded it would’ve killed the others because the whole point of live service is to get people to play it for as long as possible, people don’t usually play more than 2 or 3 live service games at a time so why make so many
@@Non-Legitbecause that’s consistent money
@@Non-LegitBecause there is guarantee any one of them would land. The thinking was to fund varied projects, targetting specific communities, in the hope that, either one of them becomes a big success to generate enough benefits to sustain itself and a couple more big projects.
I would like to see 0 live service games in any pipeline.
So much talent on the streets...they should just start their own studios....
Someone would need to pay them? You don't just start a studio and then work on a new game (indie or not) for like 5 years without pay.
I mean, sure, all these firing WILL lead to a couple new studios being formed because SOME people will secure funding from investors or even banks. But "they should JUST start their own studios"... my man.... it's not that easy.
@@paulszki if its taking 5 years to make it a game then its not Indie
@@SpawnViper4Nobody even knows what "indie" even is anymore and I'm not sure, a small team working on a game for a long time somehow disqualifies them for independent publishing.
Hades came out in 2020 after about 3 years of development time by a pretty experienced inde dev team. Early access for Hades 2 is going to start sometime in 2024. Release might not be until 2025.
But sure, make it 2 years for an Indie game, if you like. Doesn't change much: Most people can't afford to work without any pay for more than a year.
My points stands: the overwhelming majority of developers is not in the position to "just start their own studio".
So what does PlayStation do now? More price increases? Isnt that part of the problem why sales are on a decline, its just too expensive in a world where Gamepass exist. This is before COD launches on Gamepass too
Only Xbox console owners subscribe to GP and there are so few of those, its not even funny. This is why Microsoft is now having to release it's titles on PlayStation.
@@marcbridgewater1562 you realize PC has game pass right?? Im subbed to it on my PC right now. Oh wait, you didn't know 😂😂
Nah, alot of their big games still actually sell pretty damn well. FH5 sold over a million copies of it's 100 dollar ultimate edition before the game even launched (if gave 2 days early access). Starfield too sold gamebusters despite being on GP. And they do get revenue from gamepass on tip of that
@heDocuments I did know, so now you can add another 3 people on PC to the 3 people who actually own an Xbox. Wow. Xbox player count is really looking good now. 😁😁😁
@marcbridgewater1562 your comment is going to age poorly if PS goes the route of even more price increases. Your crazy if you think people arent going to start migrating to Gamepass after COD launches on there and is just included. Or, the alternative, you can buy them for 70 each on PS
Jim single handly killed PS in less than 4 years! Well done
yep. starting with killing their best studio. japan studio
Lol keep telling yourself that xbot
@@Snaaake_BeaterYou're joking right?
@@Snaaake_Beaterbest studio? You're crazy they mostly made kiddie indie games
@@MichaelM28I don't think he is, japan studios had about 27 very passionate fans around the world😂
I remember Psygnosis's OG Wipeout from 1995 on PS1. What a shame. Sad sad day indeed.
Sony’s console days are officially numbered.
I wish that London had been working on The Getaway years ago for the period where many people a frustrated at the lack of GTA
I m done with Sony, i was going to buy a PS5, not anymore.
Pc is the way to go.
The old CEO of Nintendo, cut is onw salary so that Nintendo didn't have to fire there employs, when Nintendo was in trouble.
Sony is making alot of profit.
And for what reason Sony acquired London Studios, just to years later shut them down whitout releasing one game.
💯
That’s so stupid 😂
I don’t understand why Jim Ryan is doing this right before he leaves. Shouldn’t this be taken into account by the new leadership not someone who is on his way out.
He's going anyway, maybe they did this so the New person does not look bad straight away.
RIP London Studio. I was really hoping to see a new game in the Getaway series. 😢
Sony had decades to do something with the ip. This is like putting a dog out of its misery
@@wisdomincoming12after torturing it yourself the whole time...
Like seriously, why didn't they let them make more VR games? PSVR2 seems dead in the water. Why did London Studio develop some live action game instead of making the next VR action game? They had already learned so much with VR Worlds, then Blood & Truth. What even was the plan for PSVR2 if you don't even let one of your most prolific VR-Developers make a VR-Game?
A real bummer but not surprised.. Everyday there’s news of a company laying off its workers or shutting down completely.
this it hard for the VR. It's not looking good. I had a little faith it would turn around that's now gone.
Probably why they are working on porting PSVR to PC.
Pal world and Hell Divers both being so successful probably killed any other live service games. And I’m glad. Such a shame people have to lose their jobs because of the spectre of “infinite growth”. Public companies will see a revolt over the next decade or so as you can just get the sentiment from everywhere that people have worked out it’s a just a sham
Palworld isn't even a live service game! But I do think it will have impacted enthusiasm for Live Service development
@@alexlyster3459 really? I don’t use steam or anything I just keep seeing stories about concurrent players and server costs. Pretty sure it’s an online game and if it isn’t already live service I think it will be soon enough. But thanks for correcting me
@@rolandrowland6992 So to explain, Steam has concurrent player counts for every game. As for the servers, the game can be played offline, or it can be played multiplayer which requires online servers. But live service means more than that, it means constant content drops and micro transactions. While there is a road map for Palworld updates and features, there are no ways to spend money in game once you've bought it. At least not yet.
@@rolandrowland6992concurrent players can be seen on steam chart websites, but server wise, it may have a multiplayer mode like Pokemon.
I myself don’t know.
@rowland6992 i'd say the only thing to know about palworld is that modern gamers have a short attention span, they went from "2.1 million" players to "284,000" in less than 30 days. It is in early access and i assume these numbers will build back as they update, it was just trendy to play in january.
Gas for those private jets ain’t cheap
LIVE SERVICE DYING IS A WIN!
I don’t care about Helldivers 2 being the newest “surprise”. Live service is too risky cause for every 1 success you have 1000 SuS Squad and Skull and bones.
Ok and for every Spider-Man you get a game like returnal that only sells 1 million copies or a forspoken.
Single player games will not save this company the average person on ps5 is playing multiplayer games all day
@@KnucklesWTD what you said is actually… correct… but lacking.
The big issue with the online games is that they need to RETAIN PLAYERS. The competition is more intense and good online games end up dying because they got no players to sustain it.
At least I can buy Forspoken and enjoy it without an expiration date.
And ps3 got a system update
Lmao
I just beat Ghost of Sparta and Chains of Olympus last week on PS3. Still use it every now and then.
Aka a Jailbreak Patcher 😅
when? been playing rn
@@JokerX350It was still done primarily to patch the jailbreak
The gaming sector for all blew up during covid, now its contracting back to normal levels. I do feel were a bit saturated with games at the moment. Sad news for those affected but hopefully they'll be a bit more quality over quantity for all platforms going forward.
It’s kinda reminds me what happening to Peloton where they rise during the pandemic and now the company is struggling with so many layoffs and the company shrinking. It’s as if they didn’t have a Plan B for what will happen once the world return to normalcy
Some companies sometimes react to things and dont create a long term solution in time, also acquisitions and mergers will always make some companies close subsidiaries and layoff employees. I work in a different industry and Ik companies that take over other ones and they go thru a similar cycle it sucks but people really just talk about the subject like they are experts or make some wild theories on why its happening. Im talking about some other ppls comments ive seen@@AndersonTenecela
Just goes to show how qualified executives making six to seven figures a year really are. Us normies saw this coming because it was too obvious, it isn't rocket science that we'd eventually see a fall off with entertainment and home recreation. Not to mention entertainment mediums such as video games, shows and movies have become far too concerned with personal political agendas and less with actual entertainment.
That’s a shame my heart goes out to everyone affected
Sinking to much money into AAA games and technology that doesnt sell because the passions replaced with making a profit and when that expectation isnt met the suits wanna just axe it.
This is where the smaller independent studios are thriving
Thank God! They are getting rid of live service games, now they people who makes those types of games will have to develop real skills in making videogames instead of using their marketing degree for games
Microsoft and Sony on a race to see who's console manufacturing (or gaming) division goes out of buisness first.
xbox for sure as nobody buys there consoles
@roseforyoubabe Michael pacther predicted that sony would pull out of the gaming business in 20 years time,sure Sony lost 10 billion in stock... Microsoft are a trillion dollar company, xbox will be fine.
@@spankrocketgaming294you are talking about a sony loss. Sony is not just playstation which you people tend to forget and for microsoft being a trillion dollar company doesent matter, you really think they would want to lose money on xbox forever?
@@spankrocketgaming294 I thought the same, but seeing how Microsoft is pushing xbox to release games 3rd party I would not be surprised if they go full Sega and shit maybe a rebrand.
@kemo2292 I understand that but Sony has invested so much in PlayStation they are operating the brand at a loss, they may one day decide is it worth continuing to stay in the gaming business, spiderman 2 cost Sony 300 million to develop and it only sold 6.1 million copies last i checked, , that's not profitable for Sony , no wonder they are screwed now. And now hard working developers are losing thier jobs. The first party games are not sustainable
wonder how many top execs got fired, or at the very least took pay cuts?
The answer is the same it always is for these western companies: none.
They got "Stress Bonus". Since it is a very Stressful time in the company.
Really not the news any of us wanted to see, especially hot off the admission that there'll be no major IP releases this year. PS Studios need to be staffed up now more than ever as game dev becomes increasingly demanding. Very disappointed in PS leadership today - I know games are costly to make, but they also take a long time to make, and they'll take that much longer with these jobs cut. My heart goes out to the many gifted developers who got bad news today, it hurts to see their passion and skill rewarded with an unceremonious kick to the curb.
They were seriously staffed up. Insomniac, Santa Monica ,and ND are now capable of having multiple projects in development. It takes so long to make games now... especially new IPs. Sad that layoffs happened but it seemed inevitable after the boom during the pandemic.
U should be disappointed in yourself it's your fault I ain't gonna explain how but it is yours fault
Bro wtf Twisted Metal is the sony live service game I was actually excited about
SIE has no idea how to make money or what we want. Those of us who don't mind live service would have loved that and TLOU Online.
But hey we're getting Fair Games 🤷🏿♂️
Jeez. The 2020s so far is not a good time for everyone. Goodluck and Godspeed to the people at PlayStation and former PlayStation employees.
Damn, can't believe what happened to London Studios, Singstar was pretty popular. As for live-service games, I'm glad they are cutting back on them, but the only live-service games I them to make are MAG 2 and Warhawk 2 which are sequels to PlayStation 3 online-only games MAG and Warhawk.
Jim Ryan put all his eggs in the live service basket and now 2024 is empty. No games, no profit, sacks staff
yeah, seems quite obvious fail from his part. I mean, Jim is conveniently retiring and leadership at playstation is changing
Helldivers 2?
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth?
Rise of the Ronin?
Stellar Blade?
Silent Hill 2 Remake?
Concord?
Who knows what else?
They also publish and own every IP on that list besides FF7 and SH2
Tbf Helldivers is a success
@@DeathcoreManiac he is talking about PS 1st party. All the games you mentioned majority are third party exclusivity deals. But the problem is with Sony 1st party Sony is kicking 900 devs from their 1st party studios. We don't have any major 1st party game coming this year. We only had 1 major 1st party game last year(Spiderman 2)
That's where Jim Ryan comes in. He bet on live service & sabotaged PS 1st party. Now devs are being fired, studios are getting shut, games are getting cancelled & we don't have enough 1st party games 4 years into PS5 lifecycle
@@DeathcoreManiacGranblue Fantasy is also console exclusive to PS consoles for the time being. And all of these other third party games coming out are coming to PS. The “no games” thing has never been literal. Especially to start out this year.
Every Game company is starting to see Live service IPs is no damn joke. It will either make or break you.
A sad day indeed. Thanks for making this video. For some reason you being the bearer of this news has made it easier to digest. Let's hope all those talented individuals get through this tough time and back on their feet very soon.
…and sometimes industry trends are chased because of money-tinted glasses blinding management to the fact that there is, in fact, little to no real profit potential.
This is actually great news, live service games have gone too far, a cancer in the industry trying to get players to devote all their time to a single game while completely ignoring others.
Still the most played games on psn Sony canceling theirs means nothing
Live service is a pox on trophy hunting for sure, in many ways 😒
Hope some of these released employees will find work on new studios out of SIC.
New studios, new projects
Damn, so there goes any hope of any potential revival of The Gateway series. Their tech demo in London on the PS3 looked so nice :(
I wanna somehow be able to get a copy of the beta to just drive around tbh
Maybe it’s not worth spending hundreds of millions of dollars for these AAA games. It’s also happening in the movie industry when the budgets are getting “too big”
The games are great though so they must be doing something right
@@DeathcoreManiacAA/indie games are also great. Helldivers 2 has a much bigger replayability than Spider Man 2 and costs half as much.
Yes it is happening in the movies although with the movies, the audience is much bigger than the gaming community. And with movies the studio can make money from box office, digital sales, digital rental, broadcast and streaming rights and even people still buy dvd's and blu-rays. When it comes to game it's just digital and physical and subscription.
@@nikitos3558 ehh idk about that lol maybe on par, kinda got bored of HD2 and I have less hours than spiderman. Still a great game but it honestly depends on the player, shit I remember spending hours on flash games and they're free.
@nikitos3558 Helldivers II is designed to be replayed more. Also, Helldivers had a budget of 98 million. That's still within the AA scope
Just Google AAA budget. It doesn't have to be as absurdly expensive as Spider-Man or Grand Theft Auto to be AAA
Always find it curious when companies buy out developers and then have to do layoffs.. Makes no sense.. If you can't afford staff why buy developers?
Divide and conquer.
@@JACK-DETHbad analogy lol more like scorched earth
Bad economics:
Central banks make interest rates go down. Money becomes cheap. Companies that, in a normal scenario, wouldn't take that money decide to take it and invest in things that are not really that a good of idea. Like hiring a lot of workers
Then, central banks increase interest rates, and the whole economy implodes. Therefore layoffs
I really feel bad for those devs, this is definitely a really sad time in PlayStation gaming. Now we're also going to be left behind without getting those project titles being released 😢 i was shocked about the Twisted Metal game.
yeah, it's sad for employees and for us to see this new strategy at playstation: more service games, more PC games and fewer AAA games.
Seriously!! I was so looking forward to a new twisted metal game.
@steves more service games? they just closed london (that was working on a live service game), twisted metal live service canceled and ND canceled a very far along live service game as well. so what more service games are you talking about?
There is nothing wrong with AAA titles as long as they are done right. Unless you want crappy cheap games that dont push boundaries on their respective genres and vision. Play stations shouldn't have Spent money on bungie thats 3 billion on probably a bunch of greedy morons tunneled visioned dudes who think their way is their only way of making live service games. We will never know if tlou online was good because somehow bungie are the experts on that. Their "aquisition" made no sense to me why even get them in the first place. Why would they try to help other live service games when thats their demographic and they didnt owe PS their loyalty. 3 billion and still poop out crap im sure the higher ups took the money and ran and didnt invest back in the studio like they should have@@sergeesteves
@@8bitArtistwell it’s what the new CEO said so why doubt him?
:( Thank you for the fun times London Studio. Hope they all stick together and form a new studio.
layoffs suck- i have been unemployed since the manufacturing plant i worked at closed its doors forever
spending up to 300 million on a game no matter how great is just plain nuts..
Same goes for movies!
GTA 6
@@lesterbronson2385 movies make a lot more money then games..
@@Crimsongz gta is the exception as they will sell more games by far then any other game
@@roseforyoubabe not really
This really sucks. All those people lost their jobs. It's horrible
Welcome to life… people lose jobs everyday
We must save Playstation at all costs, consume all their products!
@@thegixlad27no shit Sherlock
Wow! Did they really lose their jobs? No way! You must be some sort of genius for working that one out!
@@orion4829 i only save playstation if sony saves playstation 3
Really sad! London Studio was a big part of my young life. I've had different versions of Singstar. I remembered singing along with friends. Great memories!
Remember when Naughty Dog gave us Uncharted 1, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3 and The Last of Us in one generation?? Now what do we have? 3 years in and a remaster of Last of Us 2? Sony really needs to change the way they have their studios do their biz. It's sad that people lose their jobs - totally totally is - but something has been bloated and wrong at Sony for awhile now.
As amazing as TLOU is, it’s a shame that the game’s success has hindered Naughty Dog’s progress from releasing new games. Naughty Dog’s peak was definitely the PS3 era!
Playstation needs to make games that gamers want, not games for journalists or executives who don't play them. Otherwise this will keep happening.
A shame to see London Studio go. I wonder if the extortionate living and building costs in London had anything to do with it, most likely yes. 😢
I just want to scream and punch the air but it's one of those things I can't control 😢
If companies would let go of their useless DEI teams they would save money and their games would sell more, therefore making them more money. What’s so hard about this?!?
I've been playing my PS3 and PS4 for the last couple of years now. I got too jaded with newer products. I can't be the only one.
I loved London Studio. I’m really gonna miss them.
You did Herman dirty in that thumbnail 🤣🤣
Very sad to hear we aren't getting that Twisted Metal game. I've never been super into the series, but I was hoping it would be a good place to start. Sony really needs to utilize their older IP, they have so many franchises that are absolute gems, and some that can really be rebuilt into modern experiences. I'm always critical of every new live service game that comes out, but man a new Warhawk would go so hard... AND GIVE US SLY 5 ALREADY!!!
Damn that's a shame man. Thanks for keeping us in the know with all things PlayStation Ryan even when it comes to bad news. I also wish the best to all those affected by the cancelled projects and layoffs. It's crazy to think how all that hard work can just go right down the drain as a result of largely economic pressure.
I think more A to AA live service games like helldivers 2 is the way to go, lower budget, lower risk and keep investing in the AAA single players like spiderman ect.
No live service is cancer That's why all or this happened
Is there any resources out there which types of jobs/skillsets are affected? always thinking about getting into game development but the gazillion tech layoffs are not encouraging to say the least. question is, are mostly designers or 3D/environment artists affected, but C++ programmers are much more safe, for example. I mean if entire projects and divisions are shut down it's probably everyone at risk, but wondering if in general certain departments and skillsets less affected.
Shuttering Japan Studio was a monumentally stupid decision. Thats where I jumped ship
They should revive Evolution Studio
same here…
been playing motorstorm and heavenly sword the whole day
scince they shut down japan studios i started to hate my favorite company and now the hate is so big that i cannot even enjoy any game from them because they are so uncreative and for the mass audience
Jumped ship to where? Trashbox???
Yayyyyyyyy F*** Live Service Games.
got my copy of Eye Toy: Play 2 on the shelf here. ❤
so is PlayStation access going? they work at London studio?
This can be a very cut-throat business. I hope everybody manages to land on their feet
It really sucks that genuine hard workers suffer from the misdeeds of higher business people.
Maybe it's time to stop with the $100m+ budget games with 4-5 year development cycles. It's clear from the major success of Palworld, Lethal Company, and Helldivers 2 we need a lot more smaller titles.
Ive been watching you for almost 10 years now how did you not age?
I suspect more studios & even some big publishers like WB with SSKtJL are very close to being under water financially. More chaos to ensue in these dire times , imo
me playing heavenly sword on ps3. its far from perfect but it slaps. we need games with corners that are not super safe and for the mass audience. i mean i also hate tlou2 but at least they did what they wanted to do
Yeah having games that need 24hrs live service was what they tought it was way to go.i miss the day we had a single player campagin with a multiplayer option.
There is a new PS3 update
Yeah so what? It's the yearly bluray license/code update to keep movies playing.
Sorry but this gen has been absolutely depressing, thank god for the Nintendo switch for keeping my love for gaming alive. My PS5 is dusty and all I’m excited for in the future is switch 2.
Yeah, it does always feel like for every bit of good news we get in gaming this gen, there's bad news waiting to gut punch us
There have been many good games for ps5. If your ps5 is dusty then you should just expand the games you play.
Microsoft plan to go multiplatform makes sense now.
I personally feel like this all circles back to Jim Ryan, and all of his horrible decisions.
When he shifted all of the studios to Live Service, and then backed out after he was forced to retire.
Had none of that happened, I don’t think we would be having this conversation, and instead talking about new titles that would probably be coming out by now, had they continued focus on single player experiences.
Instead, they’re forced to lay off bc they literally have nothing to offer right now.
It totally sucks. I don't play multiplayer myself but totally agree that it sucks for the gamers who do.
Something about AAA games dev time has to change, either they get smaller in size and ambition (AA like plague tale Requiem), or they all become live service with recurring monetization so studios can stay afloat since user base stopped growing after the end of the pandemic
If there were games due for a remaster it would be The Getaway 1 and 2, not TLoU 1 and 2.
We really need a state of play. We have NO idea when their next first party games are releasing. When is Ghost? What happened to the Days Gone Studio and their new IP? Where is Santa Monica new IP? Sooo much questions and very little communication.
ghost 2025 and the rest needs like 2/3 more years because sony wants their games bigger bigger bigger
A lot of this is down to mismanagement. Unfortunately, Sony has a habit of giving Studios enough rope to hang themselves then closing the Studio. That game from London Studio looked awful. They never should have been put on that project. They should have been working on a Getaway sequel or similar that also worked in VR. I don't know what Sony is doing with VR. They should have given the platform proper support or just not bothered. Japan Studio shutting down was way worse. They really should have redirected the talent there and built a AAA game that would appeal more to the mass market.
I'm quickly losing interest in gaming. I'm seriously thinking of giving up on new games after PS5.
The game from London Studio was just one artwork you saw. So you can't even judge based on just the artwork. I mean come on.
@zaltmanbleroze The concept sounded awful. Very generic and looked like it would be dead on arrival. It also just seemed like another studio having a stab at a live service game.
come to pc, everything is better here
@anaguma90 Thanks for the invite but I'm not going to check specs, upgrade my PC at great expense.
If anything, I'll buy my kids the new Nintendo and stop following gaming news and podcasts and play whenever I feel the urge. I already have enough games on PS5 to last me 5 years at the rate I play games.
I do hope for those who were laid off will find new jobs before long, I do hope the London Studio crew can keep the spirit of their company alive wherever they work next, either be creating new studio from the ground up like the Twisted Metal devs or more recently with Ex Rocksteady Devs that left their stomping grounds to create a new studio to keep their work alive, even went after Rocksteady devs to hire and are now a 100 people strong, honestly anything can happen and I hope for the best.
Great news live service sucks and London studio wasn't exactly doing much 😂
i wonder if lack of VR sales was part of this decision.
Wouldn't be surprising honestly. Fire Sprites Twisted Medal could've easily been a hybrid title and London Studio has a history with VR. People are screaming about live service, I think this also speaks to PlayStations further lack of commitment towards PSVR2 which is really a slap in the face to everyone that invested in the platform.
I am one of the people that pre-ordered it never playing vr before. I regret purchasing it, way overpriced, lack of games, considering on selling her.@@tb1235