Support NeoGAF

[Neolombax]

No, acquisitions are never a good thing, however entertaining the meltdowns would be.

 

[GymWolf]

Is the guy on the right a real man?

no, it's clearly fake kiryu from kiwami 2

 

[Stefan.North]

What's this obsession of hardware manufacterers (especially Sony) purchasing third party studios?

I want as many developers to stay third party and independent as possible.

 

[GymWolf]

Thats Insomniac Agenda, just like the agendas each studios have. And thats a western epidemy not a Sony agenda. You cant even select a female avatar in GT7, meanwhile in forza you can choose pronouns. The only thing GT7 has close to something woke, is a Pontiac Trans AM.

Insomniac can't just woke up in the morning and decide to turn a super big project like sp2 into a woke infested game of the worst species without asking to sony first, they are not an independent studio and this is not a niche projects for hardcores that is expected to have low selling numbers.

People who really think that a studio doesn't have to ask permission for nothing for a project that involve hundreds of millions are fucking crazy or super naive or never worked under anyone in their lives.

Sony was definitely all on board when ND, firewalk, guerrilla and insomniac turned to the woke side, they didn't forced woke on these studios, but if you are not against this shit you are basically enabling this shit, so they definitely have their faults for not killing this shit when they had all the power and rights to do so.

 

[midnightAI]

No, acquisitions are never a good thing, however entertaining the meltdowns would be.

That's not true at all, if the company being acquired is in financial difficulties for example then an acquisition can pump in extra cash. Sometimes acquisitions can be beneficial for many reasons, such as marketing, personnel, infrastructure etc.

Not saying every acquisition is a good thing, and I'm not sure Kadokawa really need it but if they want to sell then so be it and it's certainly better going to another Japanese company.

 

[midnightAI]

Insomniac can't just woke up in the morning and decide to turn a super big project like sp2 into a woke infested game of the worst species without asking to sony first, they are not an independent studio and this is not a niche projects for hardcores that is expected to have low selling numbers.

People who really think that a studio doesn't have to ask permission for nothing for a project that involve hundreds of millions are fucking crazy or super naive.

Sony was definitely all on board when ND, firewalk, guerrilla and insomniac turned to the woke side, they didn't forced woke on these studios, but if you are not against this shit you are basically enabling this shit, so they definitely have their faults for not killing this shit when they had all the power and rights to do so.

They are letting their studios do their own thing, that's not a bad thing (most of the time). A lot of the so called 'woke' stuff in games (not just Sony) is blown way out of proportion in my opinion but if you are sensitive to that kind of stuff then I see the issue, for me, most of the time, it just isn't (Spider Man 2 is borderline a little much, still a good game though, Concord is way too much and the game was just average, Last of Us 2 didn't bother me at all, Lev being trans is mentioned, what, once? And isn't that important of a character or important fact in the game but the game itself is amazing)

 

[GymWolf]

They are letting their studios do their own thing, that's not a bad thing (most of the time). A lot of the so called 'woke' stuff in games (not just Sony) is blown way out of proportion in my opinion but if you are sensitive to that kind of stuff then I see the issue, for me, most of the time, it just isn't (Spider Man 2 is borderline a little much, still a good game though, Concord is way too much and the game was just average, Last of Us 2 didn't bother me at all, Lev being trans is mentioned, what, once? And isn't that important of a character or important fact in the game but the game itself is amazing)

Agree to disagree, It's definitely a bad thing when you are alienating your clients with this woke shit or when you are failing with a 200++++ million project like concord (even if being woke was just one of the bad aspects of that game).


Sony should keep the retarded activist in check, not giving them more checks.

 

[KiteGr]

Form is nothing without Miyazaki. If he jumps ship, the acquisition will be worthless.

 

[midnightAI]

Agree to disagree, It's definitely a bad thing when you are alienating your clients with this woke shit or when you are failing with a 200++++ million project like concord (even if being woke was just one of the bad aspects of that game).


Sony should keep the retarded activist in check, not giving them more checks.

If you take away autonomy from the studios you can stifle innovation within those studios, people will leave if they aren't making what they want to make (I'm talking the higher ups within those studios, not the grunts who are easily replaced), I'd personally rather they learn from their mistakes (if they can). You would think that the pushback that is happening now (and the disaster that is Concord) will have those studios thinking, and not just Sony's studios, but all studios can see this happening so lets see which ones have common sense. At the end of the day every studio will still have targets to meet.

We should hope that the Concord failure is a one off for Sony (lets see what Fairgame$ is though) and that everyone learns from that failure and I'm not just talking about the woke stuff either, there are many lessons to be learnt and I'm sure many will study what went wrong for years to come, and it does need looking at, especially from a financial point of view because (purchase of the studio aside), there is no way that game cost $200 million+

(I say all this but I do think Sony should tell all their studios to NOT use Sweet Baby, they are very much doing more harm than good)

 

[NahaNago]

We're not talking only about FromSoft but Kadokawa as a whole. And I know it's not exactly the subject but Sony's American HQ will fuck up everything from games to manga, anime and light novels with censorship and forced diversity. So I'd rather want for it not to happen but I guess when it's announced it's already too late...

This is my main reason for not wanting it to happen. I generally don't care if they acquire FromSoftware. I seriously doubt Sony will change much with Fromsoftware unless their games massively fail or they bleed money like crazy because of them.

 

[GymWolf]

If you take away autonomy from the studios you can stifle innovation within those studios, people will leave if they aren't making what they want to make (I'm talking the higher ups within those studios, not the grunts who are easily replaced), I'd personally rather they learn from their mistakes (if they can). You would think that the pushback that is happening now (and the disaster that is Concord) will have those studios thinking, and not just Sony's studios, but all studios can see this happening so lets see which ones have common sense. At the end of the day every studio will still have targets to meet.

We should hope that the Concord failure is a one off for Sony (lets see what Fairgame$ is though) and that everyone learns from that failure and I'm not just talking about the woke stuff either, there are many lessons to be learnt and I'm sure many will study what went wrong for years to come, and it does need looking at, especially from a financial point of view because (purchase of the studio aside), there is no way that game cost $200 million+

(I say all this but I do think Sony should tell all their studios to NOT use Sweet Baby, they are very much doing more harm than good)

If the autonomy means turning games into shit, then i want some sort of control from sony, at least when the studio is clearly run by activists like insomniac.

Fromsoft would only need some sort of control just to guarantee that their games don't run like shit and look a gen behind.

Not every studio need the same amount of control.

 

[Truth Be Told]

What does this mean, specifically? In my mind they just make different types of quality games, not that one group is on a whole different level of game development

I'm referring to the image quality and performance patches released on the PS5 for games developed by the previously mentioned PlayStation studios.

 

[Ogbert]

Have you even played a single fromsoftware game?

No. Not a single one.

I don’t have thousands of hours logged across Demon Souls, DS1-3, BB, Sekiro and ER.

 

[Perrott]

Are we seriously expecting Venom?

I'd assume it went to shit along with the Spider-Man 2 DLC and their GAAS. A Venom game is inventible, but I doubt it's coming out before Wolverine. Or did I miss something other than the leaked powerpoint?

What seemed to be the most up-to-date slate of upcoming releases from the Insomniac leak had Venom slated for 2025, Wolverine for 2026 and Spider-Man 3 for 2028. Regarding Venom, I do believe that Insomniac's statements from a few weeks ago about there not being a Spider-Man 2 DLC actually support the idea of Venom being a standalone game ala Miles Morales. In fact, there was a whole document in the leak that described a Miles Morales-style Venom game, planned to debut at a reduced price in September 2025.

 

[MonkD]

What seemed to be the most up-to-date slate of upcoming releases from the Insomniac leak had Venom slated for 2025, Wolverine for 2026 and Spider-Man 3 for 2028. Regarding Venom, I do believe that Insomniac's statements from a few weeks ago about there not being a Spider-Man 2 DLC actually support the idea of Venom being a standalone game ala Miles Morales. In fact, there was a whole document in the leak that described a Miles Morales-style Venom game, planned to debut at a reduced price in September 2025.

I'm guessing Carnage, and maybe even the Beetle DLC will get folded into it. But without there being any news around that game I'm assuming we won't see it until at least a year later than Wolverine.

The gameplay that they gave us in Spider-Man 2 was shallow has hell. So it's not like they had the template done by that point, unfortunately.

 

[mdkirby]

I'm sure he's wealthy, but not tens of millions of dollars wealthy as the Bungie board of directors are following the deal.

Also, why are starting from the base of assuming he'd be dissatisfied with this deal? After all, the external development producers from PS Studios have been close business partners of him for over 15 years now across three FromSoftware-developed first-party PlayStation games now, with a likely fourth one already on the way. Chances are that he's actually in very good terms with Sony, as there's nothing that has suggested the contrary.

I wasn't meaning him to be dissatisfied with the deal, more that he may not want to (which I vaguely recall was something he expressed) work on a blood borne sequel. So its not so much the deal but more being told by an external party to make something he doesn't have much interest in doing.

 

[Thief1987]

No. Not a single one.

I don’t have thousands of hours logged across Demon Souls, DS1-3, BB, Sekiro and ER.

So you want to say there are no tutorials?

 

[64bitmodels]

Man, why would you even bother with threads like these filled with the biggest of retards? From Druckmann suddenly becoming head of the studio, to them employing blue hairs from California for some fucking reason, and their next game starring transgender BIPOC.
How can you even discuss shit here?

woke derangement syndrome. major issue the forum has been having for the past year or so

that being said i still wouldn't want the acquisition

 

[64bitmodels]

Biggest con for me would be that they’d get Acquire who just reinvigorated the Mario & Luigi RPG series.. And did an amazing job at that.

Can’t this series catch a break?

No problem- just poach all the people form Acquire to work inhouse at Nintendo. all the troubles regarding M&L studios are gone.

Its what sony does for devs acquired by Microsoft (or rather, what devs naturally end up doing once they get caught up in that death spiral)

 

[Robb]

No problem- just poach all the people form Acquire to work inhouse at Nintendo. all the troubles regarding M&L studios are gone.

Its what sony does for devs acquired by Microsoft (or rather, what devs naturally end up doing once they get caught up in that death spiral)

I’m sure some will get poached but very far from all. You could’ve said to do the same with Alphadream’s staff, but they didn’t.

Seems more likely to me they’ll attempt to find a new studio to do it, if they want to bother with another installment.

 

[64bitmodels]

I’m sure some will get poached but very far from all. You could’ve said to do the same with Alphadream’s staff, but they didn’t.

Seems more likely to me they’ll attempt to find a new studio to do it, if they want to bother with another installment.

I feel like after having 2 studios in jeopardy they're going to think twice the second time around.

Even if they don't get poached, this is probably just gonna mean that the next M&L game will be made inhouse.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

As with Square, Bethesda, any other of these larger gaming companies, I would prefer they remain independent of the big platform holders. Unfortunately, consolidation appears to continue the march.

 

[Ogbert]

So you want to say there are no tutorials?

There aren’t long drawn out tutorials which hold your hand.

 

[nnytk]

No. Not a single one.

I don’t have thousands of hours logged across Demon Souls, DS1-3, BB, Sekiro and ER.

I think they're making fun of you because you only need to play about 30 minutes of any of the From Software games to be delved into a brief tutorial on how the game mechanics work. The Souls' games also come with a typical "tutorial boss" that is nearly impossible to defeat. Which is something streamers and fanatics tend to try and do, to challenge themselves.

So yeah, you're probably trying to say that having Sony involved would bring along a form of in-game handholding. Which is a valid concern. But the games already feature tutorials.

 

[Sooner]

Sony buying From Software would be like Bungie. Nothing will change guys. It's not Playstation that's buying FromSoftware. It's Playstation's parent company buying From's parent company. They will still release their games everywhere.

I seriously doubt that.

Some of their biggest games were PlayStation exclusive even before this. This isn't Bungie and Sony is not in the same position as Xbox.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Con : Sony Gaas chasing trends getting to from

Hard no

It’s not like From software is in any financial trouble and needs saving.

 

[Mhmmm 2077]

FROM? Sure.
Spike Chunsoft and Acquire? Hell no.