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New Herman Hulst interview from GI: namedrops FROM and Kojima. Crunch. Japan Studio. PC ports. Etc.

yurinka

Member
That would also be the fault of Playstation themselves, not just Japan Studio. They had plenty of talent and different ways to utilize it and approaches but I'd say they took the worst one by pulling the plug and remodeling around Asobi. Most ended up leaving before the announcement despite them denying it prior. Some of those IP's we will never see again just because they weren't a million+ seller that feels like the requirement is my biggest issue with the changes.
After decades of unsuccessful games, they downsided its internal development team and focused around their most successful team.

They also downsized and split their 2nd party publishing part into their own separate team and now instead of being under Japan Studio it's under rXDEV, their most successful 2nd party publishing team.

They were patient during decades with dozens of unsuccessful and crappy games. And were doing nothign with Japan Studio while in Europe and USA weren't that patient with teams. They downsized them faster or even shutted them down after some games weren't successful.

PlayStation keeps their IPs and obviously Team Asobi, their 2nd party team or any other Sony studio may use them if they consider it makes sense, as they recently did remaking Demon's Souls with Bluepoint.

I'm a fan of Parappa, LocoRoco, TLG or Gravity Rush and I'd love to see sequels from them, even if they are Parappa and Gravity Rush animes. But sadly this is how business works: even if they are great, if nobody buys them you get seeing more of htem. Specially if they are money sinks like TLG or if they are turds like Knack.

The most important bit of the interview in my opinion is this:

These are issues relating specifically to bad studio management, and its unusual to see this referenced even obliquely. Very positive sign that he's more about fixing issues than handing out PR pabulum.
Knowing this sound as typical working environment issues in Japanese companies, I'm pretty sure he was mentioning here some of the reasons of why they did restructure Japan Studio, fired most of their management and put a western as new studio manager.

He's just pandering to the mob. Just saying what people want to hear like "believing in generations". Its like some people like to set themselves up to get let down.

How about we get word on an actual Playstation event or whats the plan for the rest of the year? I've never felt better for not rushing out to get a Ps5 knowing my Ps4 will still get exclusives.
It's an interview to the head of PlayStation Studios, not a State of Play video.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
So no plans for day 1 PC release for exclusives and focusing on delivering gameplay experiences that can only be on PlayStation.

Sounds good to me. Lots of good stuff in this article.
they literally just bought a port studio for the sole purpose of porting games to PC. Their words. And you think they have no plans for day one releases?
 

jeffyjaixx

Member
they literally just bought a port studio for the sole purpose of porting games to PC. Their words. And you think they have no plans for day one releases?

That points more to the notion they aren't planning for day 1 PC releases. If it were, it would be worked on at the same time by the main studio for efficiency purposes. The porting studio is for porting older exclusives to me.
 
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EDMIX

Member
That points more to the notion they aren't planning for day 1 PC releases. If it were, it would be worked on at the same time by the main studio for efficiency purposes. The porting studio is for porting older exclusives to me.

True, porting is more of a after the fact type thing. If they planned day and date they would just have that done in house at the same time.

The fact that they have a team to PORT literally means they plan to do that after the fact and decided that on a game by game basis or something.
 

martino

Member
they literally just bought a port studio for the sole purpose of porting games to PC. Their words. And you think they have no plans for day one releases?
They just acquired it like you said so imo not for games releasing in the next 2-3 years if not more
Next gen is another story.
 

Topher

Gold Member
He's just pandering to the mob. Just saying what people want to hear like "believing in generations". Its like some people like to set themselves up to get let down.

How about we get word on an actual Playstation event or whats the plan for the rest of the year? I've never felt better for not rushing out to get a Ps5 knowing my Ps4 will still get exclusives.

You say "we" like you are a PlayStation fan or something? lol...I mean..you are not. Don't try to pretend you are. You simply are not.
 
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Concern

Member
You say "we" like you are a PlayStation fan or something? lol...I mean..you are not. Don't try to pretend you are. You simply are not.


Nope. Imma gamer not a brand warrior like you. If it triggers you, good. I seem to have that effect with childish fanboys lol.

Now how about you add to the discussion and stop crying. Clearly you had no counter argument so try resorting to personal attacks which is embarrassing.
 

Brigandier

Member
He is just saying what people want to hear, but facts are another story. Don't be blinded by the words.

They closed Japan Studio, and kept only small part of it which is Osobi team, while didn't acquire any Japanese studio, and still didn't announce any deal with Japanese studio, instead they announced some gaas deal with Jade .and ex bungies people.

Saying that games will come on PS5 first, well for now, he already has a plan for releasing games simultaneously on PS5 and PC but he just won't say straight, just like he acted back then that Horizon will be the only PS game that will come PC as the liar that he is.

I'd rather take his word over yours.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Jimmy Fallon Reaction GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon


Not sure about this.
 

tmlDan

Member
Just speaking from experience since i've worked in marketing and still do, this isn't just PR speak, it's probably what he truly believe but is obviously vetted.

And you may say, but this happened for that, well things change constantly. Pressure from investors to increase profit margins, new strategies to bring in more money.

You have to strike a balance, i think what he is saying about bringing PS games to PC is true, i do not believe it would EVER be day and date because that actually eats into first party profits, it's to pick up stragglers on PC afterwards. I could see it changing to a year after instead of what he is saying at 2 years - but it doesn't mean he's lying, he has to deal with a ton of pressure from people higher than even Jim.
 

Perrott

Gold Member
Kills all those Bloodborne remaster rumours.
No, it doesn't. The Bloodborne remaster has always been scheduled for a console release first, and then PC later on. Any rumor that suggested otherwise is false.
Imagine Nintendo closing studios because they don't make money. You know, sometimes is not about the money. Is about reputation and legacy.
I'd argue that titles that nobody gave a shit about back in the day like Knack, Gravity Rush, Everybody's Golf, Tokyo Jungle or Rain haven't done a good job at all in building PlayStation's first-party reputation and legacy over the last decade. Only three Japan Studio titles have served that purpose during the PS4 generation:
  • Astro-Bot, which was the only successful property to come out of Japan Studio's in-house development teams in the last decade. Team Asobi will continue to work on the series on their own, so the rest of Japan Studio was not needed to keep pumping out Astro titles in the future.
  • Bloodborne, which was developed by From Software, meaning that if Sony ever intends to collaborate with them again for a new title they don't need Japan Studio as they already have XDEV Japan to handle these type of collaborations.
  • The Last Guardian, which was the last Japan Studio title Fumito Ueda was ever going to work on, as he quitted the company in 2012 and only remained attached to the project externally. He was already gone, so it wouldn't have made any sense to keep Japan Studio operational under the hope that they'd be able to produce another one of these on their own because that was not going to happen.
See? The studio was entirely redundant by that point. What Hermen did was a mercy kill to be honest.
 

Darius87

Member
Some good things from interview i liked:
PlayStation Studios currently has 25 titles in development, with over half being new IP.
wonder how many of these new IP's are indies and AAA?
There’s a lot more that we've got in store that’s still unannounced,” he notes.
it's time to show it.
Typically, there have been about two years between the release on our platform and the PC platform,” he says.
the longer the better.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
He's just pandering to the mob. Just saying what people want to hear like "believing in generations". Its like some people like to set themselves up to get let down.

How about we get word on an actual Playstation event or whats the plan for the rest of the year? I've never felt better for not rushing out to get a Ps5 knowing my Ps4 will still get exclusives.

I started to notice the pattern that whenever a bad word accumulates, Sony unleashes him to do an interview to soften the tension. But talk is cheap, so no matter how much of a nice guy Hulst is, the actual actions don't line up with his interviews, you can sell promises only for so long after all. The messaging is bad, there actually isn't any, there are no games to look forward to other than the 3 titles already announced and delayed last year, there's no long-term plan, no roadmap, I mean, there obviously is but they keep it secret, they're skipping even after event, there's no news or gameplays for any upcoming games, besically people have live on dreams and speculations, while in the meantime their pricing schedule and practices are starting to raise more and more questions and controversy.
 

yurinka

Member
I started to notice the pattern that whenever a bad word accumulates, Sony unleashes him to do an interview to soften the tension. But talk is cheap, so no matter how much of a nice guy Hulst is, the actual actions don't line up with his interviews, you can sell promises only for so long after all. The messaging is bad, there actually isn't any, there are no games to look forward to other than the 3 titles already announced and delayed last year, there's no long-term plan, no roadmap, I mean, there obviously is but they keep it secret, they're skipping even after event, there's no news or gameplays for any upcoming games, besically people have live on dreams and speculations, while in the meantime their pricing schedule and practices are starting to raise more and more questions and controversy.
Poor fanboys still offering no counter argument. Just triggered snowflakes defending "precious sony" 🤣🤣

It's funny to see how people can twist a Sony interview trying to find something bad on it to spread fud without being able to spot any real issue. There's too much hate in the consoles war.

wonder how many of these new IP's are indies and AAA?
PlayStation Studios (so 1st and 2nd party games) has over 25 games in development. Over half of them being new IPs.

All of them are Sony published games, which means most of them are AAA and a few of them AA. None of them are indies.

AAA, AAA and indie 3rd party exclusives (so those not published by Sony) are not included in this 'more than 25 games under development' quote.

it's time to show it.
When he originally mentioned the 'more than 25 games under development' that list included Ratchet, GoT DC, Death Stranding DC, Horizon 2, GoW, GT7, the TLOU2 MP game, Bend's upcoming new IP and the three 2nd party games from the creators of Destiny, CoD BO and AC, the next Housemarque game that will be 'bigger than Returnal', the yearly Insomiac and MLB games and probably also includes Dreams (they keep working on it adding stuff) and the Uncharted 4 PC port.

There are also additional unannounced projects from at least Guerrilla, SSM, ND (probably a TLOU2 DC, a bundle of TLOU2 PS5+TLOU1 remake+standalone TLOU2 MP game and maybe an Uncharted spinoff), Sony London, Pixel Opus, Team Asobi, the 2nd San Diego studio (the TLOU1 remake), and pretty likely some extra 2nd party games like the next Bluepoint game.

Many of these projects are still early in development since their teams released a game a year or two a go. Most of these AAA games typically take around 5 years and Sony prefers to show them when they are around 1 year of their release. So we'll have to wait to see many of them.

they literally just bought a port studio for the sole purpose of porting games to PC. Their words. And you think they have no plans for day one releases?
If they plan for day one releases the same lead studio who makes the game would develop the game for both platforms, they wouldn't need a porting studio.

If they bought a porting studio leads to think that the lead studios will continue focused on making console games and this porting studio will port to PC some older titles that were originally made for console, which is what they said they will do. Meaning that the lead devteams won't be invested on the PC thing and they want a separate, specific team to handle it.
 
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Thirty7ven

Banned
they literally just bought a port studio for the sole purpose of porting games to PC. Their words. And you think they have no plans for day one releases?

I’m sure that multiplayer focused titles will be day 1, and single player games won’t because it makes no difference.
 

reksveks

Member
they literally just bought a port studio for the sole purpose of porting games to PC. Their words. And you think they have no plans for day one releases?
It's all a secret and shitty plan to force square enix to more make pc/ps exclusives without paying them money.
 

Rivet

Member
As someone said, pc ports won't be day one if they're handled by another studio, day one ports are handled by the original studio. It won't happen for PlayStation games.

They'll probably continue to release them a few years after the original game on PlayStation. Recipe works, no reason to change it.
 
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Unknown?

Member
You do what you want, but facts are here and that he lied, his fanboys advocates can keep being in denial but the proofs are already there.
Nah, get real. Anyone who doesn't agree is a fanboy. That's no argument, just a way to avoid discussion. As I said, you aren't convincing.
 

Unknown?

Member
They don't want to make PS5 full BC with all PS platefrom, but they're fully motivated to port PS games on PC and they even bought a dev for that. Anyway anyone can have their opinions but to me Hermen and Jim are jokes and they don't belong in the playstation brand.
That dev is also for support, they helped with Guerilla's games before purchase. Also BC wouldn't work if you have a digital PS5.
 

Bryank75

Banned
They don't want to make PS5 full BC with all PS platefrom, but they're fully motivated to port PS games on PC and they even bought a dev for that. Anyway anyone can have their opinions but to me Hermen and Jim are jokes and they don't belong in the playstation brand.

100%. Putting resources and attention to PC when there is no BC and they could use Nixxes to port PS3 games to PS4/5 is a disgrace.

PlayStation should come first and it should always be being enriched with unique and exclusive experiences and added value....but since these two fools came to power all we do is pay more and get less.
 

Concern

Member
100%. Putting resources and attention to PC when there is no BC and they could use Nixxes to port PS3 games to PS4/5 is a disgrace.

PlayStation should come first and it should always be being enriched with unique and exclusive experiences and added value....but since these two fools came to power all we do is pay more and get less.


Just wait on the inevitable tlou2 "director's cut" with factions 2.
 

John Wick

Member
He is just saying what people want to hear, but facts are another story. Don't be blinded by the words.

They closed Japan Studio, and kept only small part of it which is Osobi team, while didn't acquire any Japanese studio, and still didn't announce any deal with Japanese studio, instead they announced some gaas deal with Jade .and ex bungies people.

Saying that games will come on PS5 first, well for now, he already has a plan for releasing games simultaneously on PS5 and PC but he just won't say straight, just like he acted back then that Horizon will be the only PS game that will come PC as the liar that he is.
While I agree with you that he is just pandering to the mob about Japan. There is no evidence that Sony will release games on PC day and date with PlayStation hardware.
IMHO there will always be a minimum 6 months at least before anything hits PC. Otherwise Sony would lose many customers.
 

kyliethicc

Member
they literally just bought a port studio for the sole purpose of porting games to PC. Their words. And you think they have no plans for day one releases?
That points more to the notion they aren't planning for day 1 PC releases. If it were, it would be worked on at the same time by the main studio for efficiency purposes. The porting studio is for porting older exclusives to me.
True, porting is more of a after the fact type thing. If they planned day and date they would just have that done in house at the same time.

The fact that they have a team to PORT literally means they plan to do that after the fact and decided that on a game by game basis or something.
They just acquired it like you said so imo not for games releasing in the next 2-3 years if not more
Next gen is another story.
Yes? They have a ton of games to port. Day/date PC launch for their big releases this gen is a fantasy.
As someone said, pc ports won't be day one if they're handled by another studio, day one ports are handled by the original studio. It won't happen for PlayStation games.

They'll probably continue to release them a few years after the original game on PlayStation. Recipe works, no reason to change it.


um... They've already done a day 1 PC release. Nobody cared tho...

NxRpxXe.jpg


 
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Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
He is just saying what people want to hear, but facts are another story. Don't be blinded by the words.

They closed Japan Studio, and kept only small part of it which is Osobi team, while didn't acquire any Japanese studio, and still didn't announce any deal with Japanese studio, instead they announced some gaas deal with Jade .and ex bungies people.

Saying that games will come on PS5 first, well for now, he already has a plan for releasing games simultaneously on PS5 and PC but he just won't say straight, just like he acted back then that Horizon will be the only PS game that will come PC as the liar that he is.
Exactly, a liar is not believed in his words, but everything is revealed in actions.

What they did with Japan Studio is the lowest and most repulsive, being that they had a long trayectory and the games were representative.

It is unpleasant that a Westerner is in command of a company that is purely Japanese.
 
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Sentenza

Member
“But you can rely on us to continue to create platform-defining exclusive content for PlayStation – that's part of the reason why we exist. It’s really important for us to squeeze the maximum out of the platform,

"From the SUCKERS" is what he really meant here.

Basically: you guys.
 
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