Sony's first-party output has always pushed boundaries. While the platform holder has funded its fair share of shooters and racing games, experimental outings such as ICO and Heavy Rain have always composed a core part of its output, too. And speaking at Gamescom 2015, SCEE boss Jim Ryan has revealed that the platform holder prefers to be as hands-off as possible during the development process.
"One of the things when you work with a studio like Media Molecule is that you can't be too strict with things like deadlines and you can't be too prescriptive and say, 'You have to do this' and 'You have to make your game in this particular way'," he said. "You have to let the creative process take its own path."
Ryan recently hinted that there were long and intensive discussions over Horizon: Zero Dawn, as development budgets on the PlayStation 4 are astronomical. However, it's perhaps telling of PlayStation's commitment to original ideas that the game got the go ahead anyway. And on the subject of Naughty Dog, the executive re-iterated that it prefers to let its teams get on with things, rather than tell them what to do.
"As with Media Molecule, we realise that it's really important to allow these great developers to have an independent spirit, so that they're able to go and create great games without too much in the way of direction or prescriptive behaviour," he said of the Uncharted 4: A Thief's End developer. "It's very important to let creative geniuses just get on with it."
And when you look at Sony's immediate lineup, it's pretty clear that Ryan's not merely spewing lip service here. Titles like Dreams and The Last Guardian are unlike anything else in the pipeline, and we're sure that there's plenty more original stuff to come from studios such as Quantic Dream. In the past, Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has said that the platform holder likes to have a good balance of new and old in its lineup. But do you think that it's hitting the mark right now?
[source News: Gamescom 2015: Tour PlayStation's Booth with SCEE Boss Jim Ryan]
Comments 6
Give these studios as much time as they need and let them do what they do best. Make great games.
@SonyInfinity
Well, in a way Sony had to become more strict with their 1st party studios, because at some of them productivity was at an all time low. They didn't sell "daybreak studios" for nothing for example and I heard some really ludicrous stories from Sony hired contractors about Liverpool studios before it got shut down. Giving them room to create is fine, but things like The Last Guardian may never happen again ofcourse.
That's why I'm interested in Konami's side of the story as well, regarding Kojima's departure; he is one of the last Japanese Rockstar devs with dito budget in the bizz, where all others have been laid off one by one, he went on demanding crazy things to meet his "creative needs".
Sony found a good balance between too strict and too lose somewhere around the start of the PS3's lifecycle and eventually reaped the benefits. Now I hope a game like Dreams will be a major hit for once, not only being a commercial succes, but also one of the games to kickstart VR with some neat Morpheus integration.
I hope dreams is a success, and it would be neat to see project Morpheus integration, because that is what the game screams, but at the same time i am very reserved about that because as much as i love Sony there history with peripherals is terrible at best. I just hope they allow there internal studious to take the time they need to make a great game, and never rush them, and also let them be free to come up with original idea's and be open to them, and also consider bringing back some franchises that haven't seen the light in a long long time, but would make there mark in today's market.
The closed down studios SONY has, hypothetically. Can they reopen them if they wanted to, had funding set aside for them and were able to get staff? Because they have a few studios that they shut down, with the example of Liverpool, which I had really liked (Wipeout is really really fun). Or would it be more wise for them to simply buy another studio. I feel after the loss of Daybreak, they'd be itching to buy a studio, and now that ReadyatDawns new CEO made it clear they won't do exclusives anytime soon, we can safely assume it won't be them (and well the game we wont talk about). I'd love if Sony bought Quantic Dream.
Basically Sony does the opposite of Nintendo, which is a good thing
The games coming out from Sony's first party studio's are really impressive and got alot of originality to them, and I can't wait for games like horizon to come out.
Seems like alot of the mainstream is forgetting just how many 1st party studios Sony has under their belt. We have really yet to see the major first party push this generation and that makes their console dominance even more impressive. I believe that is why Sony went hard after these third party deals this holiday. Align yourself with the winning ticket, and when the dust settles start releasing all your in house projects away from the mega releases like battlefront, fallout etc. Microsoft had no choice, they need to make up ground now, against third party block busters or not. On a side note, when can we learn more about Wild, Rime, and the oft mentioned NMS? Really interested to see how these titles shape up and if any or all will have some morpheus functionality.
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