BloodyRain said:
I don't really get why liverpool was shutdown. They pretty much only made the wipeout franchise and it was fairly popular. I didn't even know they closed until a few months back.
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Don't take this the wrong way because like I said in my other thread about WipEout: it's genuinely my favourite gaming IP of all time and I love Studio Liverpool a lot, but I can understand why - out of all of Sony's studios - they were shut down.
Their games didn't sell that much. The best selling WipEout was pure on PSP which just about edged its way to a million. We don't know how much HD Fury sold; but 2048 didn't do great on Vita.
In addition to the games not selling well, they also took quite a while to make. Sony had them on the F1 licence throughout the PS2/PSP era and they made their own WipEout titles. So at least a game a year. Into this generation though, we had one F1 game from them before Sony lost the licence and then one WipEout title. And it wasn't even a 'new' WipEout - the tracks and ships were all taken from Pure & Pulse (the PSP titles). So WipEout 2048 is really their first new title since 2007.
If you compare that to say - Naughty Dog putting out a 4m+ selling game every two years; or even just look at a similar studio like Evolution who managed to make a Motorstorm game every 2 years, then it just puts Studio Liverpool to shame.
I love them to pieces; they made the PS1 spectacular and WipEout is genuinely my favourite racing series of all time. But looking at it objectively, I can understand why it happened. I would've preferred if they just got downsized or merged or something, though.