A report, that of Jason Schreier for Bloombergwhich will certainly cause discussion, and which could – conditionally obligatory, given that we are still talking about news not officially confirmed – give an idea of what the future of PS5 and PlayStation Studios will be.
The well-known journalist, who has risen to prominence several times in the past – we remember the reports on the very complicated and absurd development of Black Ops Cold War, entrusted to Treyarch just over a year before the release of the game -, has returned to the office and talked about those that are some of the biggest projects in the hands of PlayStation Studios, the group of software houses owned by Sony that work on the big IP of the giant.
According to the report published today, Sony would find itself in a rather turbulent moment in its life. Faced with gigantic IPs that have guaranteed global success, such as God of War or The Last of Us, the Japanese giant would have decided to abandon the path of games considered minor and to take advantage of the smaller studios of its team to help out. to the most important ones – on this, in fact, there is a kind of confirmation: Sony Japan Studiocreators of series like Everybody’s Golf and Gravity Rush, it was basically dismantled, as it is considered unprofitable globally. It follows that, according to the reporter, the variety of Sony’s offer will become increasingly thinner.
Schreier then talks about some of the projects that are currently in development, and this is where the potential bombs come that they will, however, discuss.
The journalist cites Michael Mumbauer, a name perhaps unknown to most but who founded the Visual Arts Service Group in 2007. It is (goes) a small group of developers based in San Diego, who for a long time provided support to the major studios of PlayStation in the making of the games, this until Mumbauer himself tried to give a new boost to the team a few years ago and to start developing their own games. With the group growing to around 30 developers, Mumbauer started production of the remake of The Last of Usa global success of 2013, with the prospect of launching it on PS5.
The project, codenamed T1X, had the idea of repurposing the first chapter of the saga in a package with Part II, to provide players with the complete experience. Also, as Mumbauer said, a remake of The Last of Us would be relatively quick and easy to make given the game’s young age, which did not favor the studio’s other initial idea – the Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune remake. . The arrival of Hermen Hulst in 2019 as the new head of Sony Worldwide Studios, however, he complicated all plans. Mumbauer’s new team was inexperienced, the ex-boss of Guerrilla Games was not particularly surprised by the work done up to that point, and there was not much confidence around the game.
In short, things certainly did not go as Mumbauer hoped: Sony never fully recognized the existence of the team, did not provide sufficient support and budget, and decided at some point, when Mumbauer’s team was in a dead end. , to hand over the development of the remake to Naughty Dog. Apparently, yes: Naughty Dog would be working on the remake of The Last of Us for PS5with Sony also giving the green light ahead of the HBO TV series that will adapt the first video game.
Sony’s desire to further enhance its existing and most successful IPs would have caused, according to Schreier, some unrest within the organization of PlayStation Studios, as well as discontent here and there. The journalist speaks for example of the case of Sony Bend, the creators of Days Gone.
The survival open world, in 2019, had a good sales response and was profitable for the company, but Sony didn’t have a Days Gone 2 planned on the horizon, this for two main reasons: the reception of the game was not particularly exciting compared to other PlayStation IPs, and the development, moreover, had been very long – and therefore also expensive. Therefore, in 2019, after the game’s release, Sony entrusts Sony Bend with two projects, with the team being split between two new priorities: a multiplayer game to be made together with Naughty Dog (perhaps the online segment of The Last of Us: Part II?) and a new chapter of Unchartedalso the subject of rumors several times in recent years – a few months before the release of PS5 the hypothesis of a prequel focused on Sully took off.
The Oregon-based software house, however, would not have welcomed the orders of the headquarters, and some leaders were even afraid of being absorbed by Naughty Dog, causing Sony Bend to cease to exist. Schreier says that, after talking to the top, Sony Bend got what it wanted at least partially and that it has not been part of the Uncharted project since last month. The team would now be working on a new game, though it is not said will be Days Gone 2.
What do you think of this long and rich report by Bloomberg? Will these really be Sony’s future strategies for PS5?
Thanks for reading!
