Sure they were.  They were plenty impactful, each in their own small way.

The bigger studios won't be able to compensate for all of their smaller and many contributions.

Your falling into a common trap only looking at the things that score by miles, not realizing that in reality... the game is one by the inches.

If the BIG games only mattered, N64 would of eaisly did as well if not better then the PS1.  You look at the all time impactful games, N64 destroys the PS1. 

The only reason the PS4 games might do better won't be due to their individual impact ability, but possibly due to not having to go up against another Wii.  (impact wise.)

I think next gen will put more weight behind 1st party development than ever before. This will be the only thing that makes these consoles unique. With streaming services, Android devices, Windows PC's, and iOS devices all getting the major 3rd party games next gen, console will have a much tougher battle ground.

My guess is next gen will be the last that Sony and MS can make exclusive games. If other platforms grow like I expect, people are not going to be buying multiple devices for gaming. If something is not available for their media center of choice, they won't buy it.

The days of people being confused by PC are fading. The days of PC's that are connected exclusively to a monitor are nearly over. Gone are the days were consoles were simple plug and play devices. Owning a Playstation no longer means any game you buy will play on it. IMO, consoles need to open up, or they will fail in todays market.

But that only works if Sony has the cash-flow to support external development ...

If Sony is closing studios because they can't afford to keep them open and operating, I'm doubtful they can afford to fund similar development at an external studio. Likely the IPs won't die off, but rather than getting 6 or 8 games a year (in total) from the studios that closed we will likely see 1 or 2 games released involving these IPs each year.

If these were the only closures that are going to happen it might not be that bad, but if you add to it another series of closures of similar studios it will start to put a big hole in Sony's PS4 line-up compared to their PS3 line-up.

You seem to be misintrepreting what I mean by 'impactful.' When you say the N64 killed the PS1 in terms of impactful games, you must be using games that sell well over 8m as qualifying for 'impactful'. You must have assumed that I was excluding the moderately selling games (those that sell about 2-5m), considering the PS1 destroyed the N64 in that department.

However, I'm not excluding those 2-4m sellers as impactful. I recognize those as significant sales. But when it comes to the few studios that Sony shut down, they don't fall into this category. You say that things score by inches, but the games from those shut down studios weren't even inches. They were more like centimeters. Their games only sold a million - if they were lucky. Some of the studios didn't even make any retail games throughout this generation. That's why I firmly believe that their loss will mean much.

EDIT: See post below to see why those games weren't impactful

- - - 

To All: The PS4 could have a more impactful first/second party if some of the Sony's mid-level developers (like Guerrilla Games, Sucker Punch, etc) releases a 'big' game like say Uncharted or God of War. As of now, Sony really only has 3-4 big IPs, depending on how you rank LittleBigPlanet. Those are Gran Turismo, Uncharted, God of War, and maybe LittleBigPlanet. That's not a long list, so if two or three more games were to join it, then I think the outcome would be large.

You also have to also consider the fact that two of those IPs, Gran Turismo (By far, Sony's biggest game) and God of War, have only graced the PS3 once each. And when they did, it wasn't until 4 years after the PS3 launched. If developers can get their games out earlier - when hardware sales are most affected by software - and more often, then Sony's software would be a lot more influential on hardware sales imo. Even if Sony doesn't establish any new big IPs, then the mere fact that Sony's current games will come out earlier and more often should have a notable effect.

1.) Really? Let's take a look at each studio.

• Liverpool has made one game for the PS3; and it was a digital game.
• Zipper has made two PS3 games. Only one of them has sold a million units. Both games recieved mixed reviews
• Inognito has made two PS3 games. One of the games, I've never even heard of (Calling All Cars). The other was Wipeout, which barely sold a million units. Not too much Incognito spawned into two seperate studios (Eat,Sleep,Play and LightBox int.). So this example really doesn't support your point.
• BigBig Studios has made ZERO PS3 games. So I don't see how their loss affects the whole PS3 vs PS4 point.

Of those studios, I only accept two as actually being making some sort of change (Zipper and Liverpool). But even then, the change is VERY tiny. One digital game, a game that sold a little over a million units, and a game that has sold ~700k. You think the absence of studios that made these three games is going to be a big loss for Sony? I don't think so.

In fact, I don't even think their closing was necessarily the result of Sony's financial trouble. These studios simply weren't producing. I'd be surprised if any publisher didn't shut them down, regardless of financial status. Sony's going to keep shutting down unproductive studios; how exactly is that a bad sign? Again, Liverpool spawned into two seperate studios. So if anything, that helped Sony. And BigBig never made PS3 games in the first place, so they're irrelavent.

2.) That's a pretty unjustified if imo. Sony is only going to close down unproductive studios. That doesn't suggest that Sony will be shutting down quality studios. As counter evidence, look at last year. Sony just purchased Sucker Punch. Sony is building it's collection of productive studios. They're just shutting down the ones that aren't worth owning; something both Microsoft and Nintendo would do. If anything, the fact that those studios were running for so long should be evidence that Sony's financials aren't hindering Sony's gaming deivision.

3.) If Sony does shut down another studio, it's going to be a studio that barely affected the PS3 to begin with...like some random developer that made one game that sold 250k. That's not a sign that Sony's financials are hindering their ability to grow (again look at the Sucker Punch example); that's a sign that Sony is making smart business decisions. If anything, that's a very good sign for Sony.

What you're essentially telling me is this: "Sony shuts down unproductive studios, they're in trouble." That makes absolutely no sense.

Awesome...wasn't there also news of Sucker Punch working on multiple games? I could be confused, but I know you 'd probably know it before anyone else.

dunno man..lol nowadays it feels like every sony dev is working on two projects

ND is definitely working on a new project

SSM's stig is making a new game

GG is making a game other than KZ Vita

MM has another game in the making other than Tearaway

SP is making one game...there was a rumor of two games too I think (need to look this one up)

Evolution is making a game...with one of the devs of PGR joining them i think we might see a new direction for Motorstorm

Yeah...PS4 is gonna have a BEAST line up of games

Wow...good stuff. 

Do you remember that one thread which listed all Sony developers and what they were currently working on? If the author isn't still updating it, I may make a new one.

hehe well I barely step out of the official vita thread nowadays so I'm not sure. But I haven't seen it in ages. so no harm in making one i guess..and we can just update it as new rumors keep dropping

I think the biggest point many seems to be missing is that...all the things i just listed are the result of sony building a strong first party throughout ps3 life cycle. they did NOT have this luxury during the early days of ps3. But now we are going in to ps4 with many many titles to look forward to even excluding third party exclusives at all

oh and don't forget

GT6/GT6 prologue etc by Polypony Digital ;)

I think you're missing something here though, which Jay has mentioned in a couple of his posts.  There's a difference between closing a studio because you're in financial trouble, and closing a studio because they're just not productive enough or not profitable.  In the case of the 3 studios that Sony have shut, I'd say it was a mix of both.  They need to cut back wherever possible, so why not shut down:

a) A studio which has never had a game sell more than a million copies (Psygnosis)

b) A studio very much on the decline throughout the current generation (Zipper)

c) A studio without much of a purpose to be honest, and no big IP (BigBig)

They were very much the weak links in Sony's lineup.  And if they had the same output for any other publisher (EA/Acti, even Microsoft), they'd have been shut down ages ago.  I mean, don't get me wrong - I loved Studio Liverpool and WipEout is one of my favourite series ever, but from a business standpoint it has never - and will never - be big enough.

And this brings me to my point.  It's one thing to shut down an unproductive studio or three, because financial difficulties or not it just makes a lot of business sense.  And it's a completely different issue to invest in the external development of an IP that has traditionally sold very well.  Sony are in financial trouble - not denying that for a second, but they're not just going to stop making games.  As I'm sure someone once said, "You have to spend money to make money!", and in the case of an exterally developed game that's got a good chance of selling well enough to make a decent profit, then obviously Sony are going to invest.