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Forums - Sony - The Horrible Mismanagement of Sonys Worldwide Studios

Wh1pL4shL1ve_007 said:
leo-j said:
Also, PLAYSTATION HOME is a SUCCESS, at least that it has made sony a lot of REVENUE.... and probably a lot of profit(should be an article around saying HOME was making a lot of money for sony), HOME is consistently growing... in both content, quality, and user base..... It''s probably going to be even bigger next gen if sony really push it.... but truely, HOME does offer something that nothing on any other console currently offers.... and it's not that bad, it shouldn't really be getting such a bad rep from a small group of core gamers....


Lol. Last time my sister went to ps home. She was being sexually harrased by male gamers. 

So... you can continually talk about its financial success. But it will never be a healthy social game. As it was meant to be. 

Dont even let me start on loading issues. LMAO

That happens in every online game, and you can't really spin it into being an anti-Home thing.



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Wh1pL4shL1ve_007 said:
leo-j said:
Also, PLAYSTATION HOME is a SUCCESS, at least that it has made sony a lot of REVENUE.... and probably a lot of profit(should be an article around saying HOME was making a lot of money for sony), HOME is consistently growing... in both content, quality, and user base..... It''s probably going to be even bigger next gen if sony really push it.... but truely, HOME does offer something that nothing on any other console currently offers.... and it's not that bad, it shouldn't really be getting such a bad rep from a small group of core gamers....


Lol. Last time my sister went to ps home. She was being sexually harrased by male gamers. 

So... you can continually talk about its financial success. But it will never be a healthy social game. As it was meant to be. 

Dont even let me start on loading issues. LMAO

Did you then go on to tell her, "Welcome to the internet"? Not only what Kantor said but it just happens on the internet in general. Even on this site I see some people occassionally just loading up female walls.



4 ≈ One

PDF said:
Lostplanet22 said:

Gears of war sold 600 k first week on a console with like what 6-8 million userbase?  People expected the same for Uncharted and it ended up with 30k first week...      Yes people called it an flop.


What?  Thats wrong.  No normal person expected that kind of sales from uncharted.  I remember it seemed flopish compared to Mass Effect that came out at the same time. lol Look at these games now.

Gears of War also had one of the best advertising campaigns I have ever seen.  I remember the commercial for it in theaters.  In matter of fact its the only videogame i can ever remember seeing a preview for in a movie theater.   

Indeed no one expected the 30 k so even sony fanboys called the sales of Uncharted horrible or just ignored discussions about. = Flop



 

Singstar is necessary and probably successful, so London Studio should not be on that list at all.
I did wander why they couldn't make KZ a stronger franchise, as they should have.

And I would add that another telltale sign of the pore management in some Sony circles is the decision to not publish Demon's Souls in the west. Bad Sony. (I know it's third party, just saying).



enditall727 said:
their studio management is not horrible

the only thing horrible is their profits and their advertising department

"the only thing horrible is their profits". Is there a more sure-fire sign of mismanagement? you may not realize this, but the purpose of a company is not to make games, it is to make MONEY.



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Very good post OP. That facts are all there.

Them being lucky with Uncharted is nothing to do with them however, its Naughty Dog and their fans. Like you said, at least half of Uncharted DF's sales came from good word of mouth of Uncharted 2.

The one thing they seem to have done right this gen is release the God of War HD collection. It sold very well and no doubt introduced many gamers to the series, which is why GOWIII sold so well.



I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're not a troll, which is pretty silly I know, but still.

 

So I have to ask, did you actually do any research into these companies you're having a go at, or did you just list the ones you knew & the games they made and let at it from there.  You did?  Good, because it'll allow me to make my own counter-list:

 

Evolution Studios: 

Agree to an extent.  Motorstorm was doing fine after Pacific Rift but Apocalypse was poorly handled.  I very much enjoyed the game and was very excited about it, but the constant pushing around of release dates and marketting ruined sales.  Not sure what else they could have done about it really.

 

Guerilla Games:

Completely disagree.  I think you've confused the numbers 1 and 2.  On the PS2, Killzone 1 was supposed to be the Halo-killer, most awesome IP ever, best thing since sliced bread (I have PS2 magazines from around that time, I'll have to try and upload them for you).

It wasn't, and it flopped.  This gen, they've turned what was essentially a dead IP (less than a million sales) into probably their best FPS IP given how Resistance went downhill.  Yes, it's not Halo - but no-one was expecting it to be Halo after the disappointment that was Killzone 1.

Killzone 3, meh.  Don't own it, have only read a few reviews about it - maybe you're right about that one.

 

Media Molecule

Agree to an extent.  Missing the holiday season was probably a pain for sales.  What can I say, Sony just don't seem to impose stupid deadlines on developers.

 

Naughty Dog

Kind of disagree.  I think the reason Uncharted 1 didn't sell well was because honestly - it wasn't that good.  Eek, I know.  It wasn't an awful game (it was stunningly beautiful, the platforming was enjoyable) but the shooting got questionable towards the end and it was short with no multiplayer.  It got the sales it deserved and the reviews, I feel, were a bit kind to it.

Is 5.5 million low for Uncharted 2?  I don't feel like it is.  Improves by more than a million on its predecessor, just like GoW2 did with GoW1 (using as comparison for a new franchise this generation).  Didn't lose sales between sequels like Resistance did.

 

Polyphony

Agree.  Nothing to say about this.  I like that Sony gave Polyphony they time they needed but Gran Turismo was (is?) huge, should have been pushed harder.

 

Bend Studio

Disagree.  Sony needs at least one of its studios to specialise in handheld games if it's going to be in the market.  Having Bend do it is as good a choice as any.  Heck, I'd love to see them make a new console Syphon Filter but I respect what they've done on PSP & Vita - they did really well with the IP's they were given.

 

Cambridge Studio

Disagree.  Now - truthfully - did you just look at the Wikipedia page of games they've made this generation and nothing else?  Because right below that there's a list of games they've contributed to, including Heavenly Sword, WipEout, Killzone 2, EyeToy and Playstation Home.

They're a hard studio to defend because they haven't done too much, that's right - and that's why they're being restructered.  But they're the games they worked on between 2005 and 2008, even a tiny bit of research would have shown you that.

 

Japan Studio/Team Ico

Team Ico - Agree, Japan Studio - Disagree.  You do realise they're not the same, correct?  Japan Studio has collaborated to make games such as White Knight Chronicles, Demon's Souls and Gravity Rush this generation, as well as making a couple of their own (Ape Escape, Bleach).  

Sure, they're not overwhelmingly stellar games (although I think that Demon's Souls is) but again you're saying that they've made nothing when they've made plenty - more than ever before, in fact.  Did you bother to look them up?

Team Ico you're right about, they've just been mismanaged and it's a shame.  I feel like they're the kind of studio that wouldn't benefit at all from strict management though, so it's all a bit subjective.

 

London Studio

Kinda neutral on your opinion for these.  I feel like it's necessary for someone in Sony's roster to make the party/accessible games, and that duty was given to London Studio.  You might not like Singstar or Eyepet, but they sell and someone needs to make them.

I'd prefer to have seen new IP's like Eight Days from them, but you can't have everything.

 

Santa Monica Studio

Completely disagree.  Come on, you absolutely must be trolling with this crap.  I'd say this generation in terms of developers has easily belonged to Santa Monica because of all the work they've been doing.

So they only solo developed God of War 3 - so what.  They've contributed to absolutely everything else this generation - Pixeljunk, Fat Princess, Twisted Metal, Starhawk, Sorcery etc.  They incubated Thatgamecompany - what they made wouldn't have been possible without Santa Monica.  They're currently incubating Superbot who are making All-stars Battle Royale.  They're helping Team Ico finish off The Last Guardian.

I genuinely think you're trolling now.  But I'm nearly done with this post, so might as well finish it off.

 

SCE Studio Liverpool

I'm actually not going to comment much on this because I'm hugely biased.  The studio is based near where I live and I would genuinely list them as one of my favourite developers of all time - WipEout is my favourite game series of all time.  If they're mismanged or not I'll leave up to everyone else, but WipEout HD Fury is one of the higest-rated PS3 exclusives at this point.

 

Anyway, I think the biggest question to ask from all this is - If Sony messed up their console launch, overpriced their console AND mismanaged their studios, why are they still in the game?  Why didn't Microsoft run away with the HD console sales this generation?  Why didn't Nintendo get in there and snare the hardcore crowd?

Fact of it is I think all the big console developers made grave errors this generation, but Sony cleaned up their act and have really been pulling things together since about 2009.  I do not think their WWS studios mismanaged on the whole, although a few of them could probably be cleaned up for better performance.



PDF said:
9087 said:

How could we forget the Playstation Xperia Phone... MEGA FAILURE.



Hey!!!!  I like my phone.  I also like being the only person I know with it :)


The fact that youre the only one you know who has it, makes it a failure 



You say Bend needs to be closed since they make only handheld games? You are the most cynical person I've ever met on the internet. Guess what dude, not every studio has to crank out big-selling FPS games for PS3.



9087 said:
PDF said:
9087 said:

How could we forget the Playstation Xperia Phone... MEGA FAILURE.



Hey!!!!  I like my phone.  I also like being the only person I know with it :)


The fact that youre the only one you know who has it, makes it a failure 

Nope. I'm the only one I know with a Samsung Galaxy S, which is one of the best selling phones of all time. Stop trolling.