Kyuu said:
I almost forgot how productive Insomniac was in the PS3 generation, probabaly coz Naughty Dog back then mixed good output with some very high production values, quality, and popularity that overshadowed Insomniac. More recently, Insomniac's production values rival some of the best in the industry, and they're responsible for Sony's current biggest published and developed series. I wouldn't say they're more (or less) productive than PS3 era ND when you factor in the number of employees and the scale of their projects. It's not exactly a like for like but both of them impressed me. Current ND does not impress. In my opinion... FromSoftware and Insomniac are the current kings of production. FromSoft doesn't have the best visuals or technical strengths, but the depth of their games is mad impressive without requiring the long development times you expect from say a Zelda game (let alone a hypothetical PS5 level Zelda game). Monolith seem very productive too. Granted it's easier to put out higher quantities of games when production values are lower. Ultimately, "productive" and "efficient" are ill-defined term that combines multiple elements. Capcom is probably up there too, but they're harder to measure with all the different divisions. I don't follow which division is doing what. |
I agree that ND has to start getting things going. I'm still not sour on them this gen so far because I think with a remaster an remake under their belt, their team will now be able to push the PS5 more readily. But only time will tell.
But you bring up a good point about the productivity of other teams, and I think it's important for Sony to get more studios like this. From, Monolith and Capcom definitiely are pushing out great games on a consistent basis.
I sort of expected FireSprite to be the EU alternative to Insomniac since they seemed, at one point, to have like 3 projects in production. They had the Persistence update in 2021, and then Horizon VR this year. Hopefully they have the rumoured Twisted Metal for 2024 with something else in 2025. But of course , since they're also working on the Star Citizen MP mode, they aren't at full manpower for Sony yet.