On their own it isn't a major loss for Sony, but with the likelihood that Sony will close more studios in the next 12 to 24 months it will have a major impact on Sony's ability to deliver games.

With the ps360 we had multi-core and threaded CPUs, GPUs with programmable shaders, and 512MB of total memory while the Wii had a single core/thread CPU, fixed function GPU, and 88MB of memory. So you can imagine how difficult it would have been to port an engine designed to support multiple threads and programmable shaders over to the Wii which featured neither.

Now with the next gen, all 3 systems will support multiple threads and have programmable shaders to play around with. So no matter the gap between the ps4/720 and Wii-U (And I guarantee you it won't be as large as PS360 -Wii), it will still be alot more easier than what we saw this gen.

So yeah, keep hoping and dreaming.

Closing the studio that makes Wipeout and Formula One games (SCE Liverpool), the studio that makes Socom and Mag (Zipper Interactive), the studio that makes Twisted Metal and Warhawk (Incognito Entertainment), or the studio that made Pursuit Force and Little Deviants (BigBig Studios) may not be that significant on their own but as a group they're quite significant; and if matched by a similar number of closures of studios of similar size and quality it would be a dramatic blow to Sony's ability to produce quality games.

Sony having as large of financial troubles as a company, the PS-Vita's poor hardware and software sales, along with the massive costs of ramping up to the next generation of systems almost guaranties Sony will be forced to make several studio closures over the next couple of years.

This isn't about you playing games like metal gear solid, finalfantasy , gta , elders scrolls , bioware games etc.

You said WiiU to PS4/720 would be in the same situation Wii was to PS360, which is simply not true and I showed that with some facts, you showed nothing.

10 year life cycle simply means they will keep the console on the market after it's successor is released, like PS2 was still on the market even during PS3's lifetime. I can't believe people still think it means there won't be another console for 10 years.

Yeah, can't back up your arguments so you turn tail and run out of the thread.

Next time don't make stupid statemenmts you can't back up in any way.

While I like the variety of games Sony put forward to us, I wish they produced more casual games like LBP and Fat Princess. That is why I have to get back to Nintendo consoles for casual game experience.

For Vita, they are doing this now with Puppetier, Tearaway, Little Deviants etc. I would like to see similar games on PS3 too.

Sony's 1st/2nd party exclusives have been fantastic this generation, and yet, Sony is still in 3rd place.

I think it will take more than great exclusives, PS4 must really distinguish itself from the competition in a much more fundimental way than PS3 did, otherwise, if 90% of it's games are shared, it'll have a hard time pulling ahead. Especially if it's last to launch next gen as expected.

I don't think that's necessarily true at all.  Take your example of Incognito Entertainment (Twisted Metal Black & Warhawk).  The studio closed in 2007.

Have we had sequels to both of those games?  Yes, we have. 

What happened?  Development shifted from being 100% internal to being 80% external with about 20% help from a Sony Studio (In this case, Santa Monica).  Sony still own the IP, they still put some work in to the game, but it was made by a third-party company under an exclusivity contract for that particular game.

I feel like Sony is shifting at the moment from fully owning all the studios they can get their hands on, to owning a few key studios and 'loaning' out their IP's to have games made.  Like they've done with God of War (Ready at Dawn), Ratchet (High Impact Games), Sly (Sanzaru Games), SOCOM (Slant 6), Resistance (Nihilistic) and so on.  Sure, some of thse were crap choices, but the point is they've got choices for the time being.

I don't doubt that at some time in the future, we'll see at least a new SOCOM game - probably a new WipEout game too, despite Zipper and Studio Liverpool being shut down.

And to answer your question in my own post Jay - yes, I think they will be more influential. I think Sony is working towards getting a better handle on their franchises in recent years.

I think with the shift towards their key internal studios develop a big property and then having their smaller studios make portable games, or hiring third-parties to use the IP, is a good decision. It's less investment for Sony, they're not having anywhere like as many people on their payroll, but the IP's still get made and get made to quality.

So for example, Naughty Dog are one of Sony's big studios. They'll make an IP - Jak & Daxter, finish what they're doing with that series then move on. Then someone like Ready at Dawn comes in and makes Daxter, a great game that continues the series, while Naughty Dog work on Uncharted which in turn gets another game made by Sony Bend. So on and so forth.

Another one of the things I've noticed about Sony that Nintendo/Microsoft don't seem to have (although maybe I have missed it) is support studios. SCE Foster City was founded by Psygnosis in 1998 and has worked to provide support to third-party developers working on first-party IP's - so exactly the kind of stuff I was talking about before. They'll help Ready at Dawn with Daxter, they'll help Sanzaru with Sly Cooper and so on. Combine this with the ICE team at Naughty Dog to help with PS3 tech, or the XDev team in Europe to help external developers, and you've got a pretty good network. And a network which is a lot more sustainable than simply "buy the studio, own the IP".  At least, that's how I see it.