I think Yoshida didn't want to just say that Zipper made a bad game.  That's the simple fact, though, really.  Pretty much everything about the game was mediocre or worse.  There were complaints about the mechanics, the writing, level design, AI ... pretty much everything.  The campaign, especially, received a ton of criticism.

Anyone trying to pin the failure of SOCOM 4 on Sony meddling with the multi-player is simply trying to shift the blame.  It was a poorly made game almost all the way around.

That's probably not the only reason Zipper was closed, though.  They were working on two other games at the time but production was shut down on both.  My guess is that neither game was looking very impressive.

Never even heard of it.

I wasn't even aware it had released yet. Assumed it had ended up in development hell. Lol.

It's very impressive what Blizzard have achieved with Overwatch, not to mention Bluehole's success with PUBG. Getting the playerbase to support an online focused or online only game can be pretty difficult but these games have managed to build huge communities pretty quickly.

Zipper were simply one in a long line of studios that didn't transition well to the 7th generation. Having a 'vision' is one thing. Releasing two terrible games is another. They were one of the least productive, and probably one of the most expensive teams for Sony to bankroll for the 7th generation. Other studios were put under simliar pressure, managed to release quality titles, and shifted units. They were dead weight. 

Also, if you're referring to the letter that made it into the media the anonymous source blamed the studio as much as the publisher for everything turning in to a shit show.

Any time a SOCOM thread pops up on GAF there are usually 2-3 ex-Zipper employees posting in it. I don't know anything about any anonymous letter. And I'm not saying Zipper is without blame. Their games were a noticeably lower quality when David Sears left. But Sony really fucked them over on SOCOM 4 :)

Exactly. If you are to believe what the ex-employee wrote, there were demands from higher up to align the game more in line with successful titles like Uncharted, Killzone, COD and Infamous. If the source is even true, you can even infer at that stage that the very reason the publisher was meddling was because the game simply wasn't shaping up well.

I think word of mouth, followed by a need for a gnre or style of game can hekp maintain a user base. Twitch can help with the starting point, but eventually people end up watching other channels for different content. I watched Day 9 play/cast Starcraft matches for eyars, but then I got bored and moved onto other tubers and streamers. I'm back to watching him again, but not nearly as much as I used to 5 years ago.

I eventually found myself grabbing PuB last weekend when I had a LAN party with some mates. They were playing PuB and I was playing my own games, they were stuck with a random 4th player and he ended up team killing them a few times (some people can be assholes, even with team play), so I decided to buy the game and be their 4th player. Not my type of game, certainly wouldn't play it alone unless my mates are playing it. I do the same with games like Heroes of the Storm (though I'm more than happy to play with random human players vs AI, but agains other humans I play with my mates).

The evidence was there though.

This is a studio that had just released a new IP 4 years in development the previous year, that bombed. It was uninspired, generic and lacked polish. Then along comes Socom 4, which hardly surprisingly, suffers the same faults.

Seems like misplaced anger riding on the words of a few dis-gruntled ex devs to me.

Yeah they're not really coming across as angry, but whatever you need to tell yourself. I'm sure you know better than people who actually worked on the game.

I don't need to tell myself anything. That's ridiculous, Ludicrous even.

I prefer searching for the truth in situations and dispelling bullshit in others.

Know better?

Look at the OP:

"former developers accused Sony of failing to adequately promote Kill Strain, which led to a severe drop-off in players after launch"

Don't make me laugh.