| DakonBlackblade said: I fear this might kill Sony Bend, they invested over 5 years in this. A 72 on this day an age is almost a death sentence, no one buys, even tough 72 is decent. |
I don't think it's likely. Bend has been a low 80's kind of studio for a long time and fairly consistent with it at that. Their four games prior to Days Gone were all in that scoring range and they were a solid developer for Sony's portable devices. The Syphon Filter franchise is among Sony's better known IPs and one of the more requested ones for them to reboot. Days Gone was new ground for them. Unfortunately, not every studio can pull off open world titles and if I remember correctly Bend was a lot smaller when they first started the project. They had to balloon the roster to get development moving along. I'm sure there were some pains there. They've been one of Sony's smaller studios for awhile.
I know people like to point to Cambridge and Evolution for how Sony can just axe a studio but those circumstances were different. Cambridge had long been an under-performing studio. Look back through their games they made under Sony. A lot of them were bad or mediocre at best. They didn't start getting consistent in decent critical reception until they were put under Guerrilla Games and even then RIGS and Killzone: Mercenary were sub-80 games that probably didn't sell well. Sony should have closed them 7 years earlier than they did.
Evolution? Likely a reaction to low sales of the MotorStorm sequels (I think I remember hearing they weren't that hot), the issues with Driveclub even after it was delayed a year, and the shrinking market for racing games. Sony already has a developer for racing games so they likely felt that Polyphony made Evolution redundant. Probably the same reasoning for Liverpool being closed 4 years earlier. Too many racing game studios. I'm going to guess they were also a sacrifice to free up money for newer studios like Manchester, Forwardworks, and the rumored studio being built in San Diego.
Heading into a new generation with Nintendo doing well and Microsoft majorly buffing up its first-party stable, now probably isn't a good time to close down a studio that had been consistently making good titles for you because their most recent offering didn't make critics' nipples hard. Yes, it probably costed Sony a pretty penny. However, we don't know how much of that money it will make back and apparently PS+ has lined the PlayStation department's pockets quite nicely. Could it still happen? Sure. I just don't see a good reason for them to, though. Bend isn't redundant, they've largely been consistent in what they deliver, and Sony is gonna need studios for the next round. The only good reason I can see for them closing Bend is if their closure leads to the acquisition of a better studio.
