People are pretending you should keep studios running just because of nostalgia even if they are not pulling their weight on investments made....Business is business, you can't keep putting money into ventures that are not pulling the relevant returns.....If business was made on whose feelings are hurt because the Studio who made some of the favorite games is no longer as strong and viable is being restructured and shuttered, then Sony would go bankrupt just trying to keep some entitled forumites happy....and it's not as if they are not investing in quirky type games and risky adventures....They are at pole position in that regard with those type of investments with VR, Death Stranding, Until Dawn, Detroit, Gravity Rush, Dreams, and so many more last gen.....
The crazy thing is....I loved me some Drive Club, best racer last gen, but Evo has been struggling to pull off a launch for several games. They needed to hit the meta out the park and get the relevant sales to push a sequel, but they had several botched launches. No one in their right mind believes DC was peanuts to produce, it was not, EVO was bleeding with many staff members getting paid huge salaries and not pulling their weight, hence the reason they let lots of the top brass at EVO go before DC shipped.....When Yoshida expected the game to ship on launch it was not ready and there were several delays to launch and some development and content milestones for the project...
Japan Studio has given us some great games, but nothing that's lighting the sales chart on fire for a minute....Gravity Rush 1 and 2 are good games, but they are no Spiderman, granted not every game is, but you want your studio to hit one out the park interspersed with the games that round the library....Profit is still the endgame, because you can't keep those investments coming at a loss. So of course Sony has to be careful what it green lights....I loved 1886, but those reviews were not great and I would love a sequel, but let's be honest it is a risk to finance 1887 if RAD does not put a critical darling out there......These games aren't cheap to make...Going back to Japan Studio, Clap Hanz etc...I would love to see these old games evolve or these studios evolving just the same....Hot shots was great in the PS1/PS2 era but the PS3 game I felt did not even evolve that much graphically from these titles and I played HS to tatters on PS1.....
The truth is, what would you do.....Naughty always delivers, their reviews and sales are guaranteed, Santa Monica always delivers.....Poliphony always deliver the sales, Guerilla has shown what they can do since KZ2.....Insomniac are guaranteed solid performers....Why would these guys not get pole position for Sony funds? I would love another Heavenly Sword another DC, a sequel to 1886, but I'm not naive to see the inherent risks vs the battalion commanders named above....Even then, nobody is taking more risks in the space than Sony, they greenlit Returnal, they had Astro team to deliver the best platform game in ages in VR last gen, they greenlit Stray and many others......No one is going to get starved of varied content here....There will be lots for everybody and lots of new IP's......