Media Molecule Claims the Dreams Beta Is Still on Track for 2018

PlayStation Blog announcement incoming: "Hey all you Dreamers out there, we've got big news to share! The long awaited Dreams beta will launch on December 31, 2018 and will be available to download from the PS Store at 11:59:59pm So if you're one of the poor saps not ringing in the New Year with loved ones, PlayStation has got your back."

We'll probably get news on the beta this month, but unless we get a big surprise dropped on us, expect the beta early 2019.

I really admire what Dreams is trying to be, but Sony has done this game zero favors in terms of marketing. A part of me says MM will go be in deep trouble if Dreams isn't a success.

@RBMango I hope you are wrong and that Dreams ends up being a success. Who knows, it may be all part of Sony's brilliant plan for recruiting fresh creative minds for their next generation PlayStation.

They should say 12/31/18 is the release date or just say 2019. They can always move it up. 😂

Sure... next post will say how needed more time to make sure the gamers get the best experiance.

Why cant they just be honest?

I respect these guys' ability to continually disappoint and keep lying to their fans.

At what point does the lying stop....

@RBMango Dreams is an indie budget game. There is no way this game actually can flop. MM is a developer studio around 50 devs. The costs of this current project is therewith really low. Let‘s not act as if this was a Driveclub scenerio.

@get2sammyb Do you have the headline stored to break out this time each year with the holiday decorations?

Media Molecule Claims the Dreams Beta Is Still on Track for 2015

Media Molecule Claims the Dreams Beta Is Still on Track for 2016

Media Molecule Claims the Dreams Beta Is Still on Track for 2017

Media Molecule Claims the Dreams Beta Is Still on Track for 2018

Media Molecule Claims the Dreams Beta Is Still on Track for 2019

I do think it will be out before holiday 2020 so you can delete it by then.

Let’s be brutally honest, 99% of PS4 owners have either forgotten about this, didn’t know in the first place, or don’t have the slightest idea of what it is.

It certainly backs up the argument you shouldn’t announce a game more than 6-8 months out.

I don't understand the hype for this.

@JAMes-BroWWWn Considering they've been working on it for almost six years and have a staggering amount of coding and optimizing to do, I don't think I'm far off in predicting this won't come close to making back they money MM spent on it.

@Kidfried I think I can add this one to the list as well lol

Theresa May also assured us that the Brexit vote would not be delayed.

@Useyourname

Agreed how many people actually want to design a game? If they want to design a game they would be doing it for commercial purposes not to be given free to other users.

@RBMango to be fair they dont have anything to market yet. The cant even get the beta in players hands much less a finished game so why spend advertising dollars.

I just hope the demo includes PSVR stuff.

@SirRealDeal No VR support for the demo unfortunately. But it will be there day one when the full game comes out.

@RBMango @JAMes-BroWWWn Whether this game ''flops'' or not isn't something Sony really care about. Sony very well knows this is a niche game and they've been working on it for a good while. They could've pulled the plug at any time, they could've told Media Molecule to release it 2018, but they told them to take their time instead.

It's like The Last Guardian. In development for nearly a decade, and I don't think it sold much more than a 1 million copies. But the fans loved it, myself included. And sometimes that's more important than making half a billion in revenue during the opening weekend of a game.

So it doesn't matter if Dreams ends up being profitable or not, the fact that they can add a bizarre and unique game to their portfolio is just as important to them. Games like God of War and Spider-Man make them enough money, they can afford a project like Dreams or The Last Guardian once in a while.

Can’t wait for it.

@Octane I really miss Motorstorm.

@Octane Sony has a lot more wiggle room for selling at a loss than any third-party publishes does, but I wonder where the line is for them. They have their fair share of studios they've closed down, and I can't help but be concerned for MM considering how long Dreams has been in development and how much of a niche title it is. It's admirable that Sony has given them an insanely generous amount of time and money to see this through, but that doesn't mean MM is in the clear if it doesn't do well.

The difference between something like this and Last Guardian is that genDesign isn't owned by Sony. A failure for a third-party excusive is still bad, but it's not as big of a deal as a studio they own releasing a sales bomb. Sony can't shut down a third-party studio.

@Useyourname It's little big planet on steroids, an easy to use 3D engine, you can make anything in it from 2D games to 1st person shooter to kart game. The potential of this game is massive.

@RBMango Unlike other studio, MM is small developers so it's not that expensive maintaining them, plus they still have money from the lbp series dlc, so I think the studio is pretty safe. Besides if sony doesn't trust dreams, why they give MM so much time to make it.

@Octane even though The Last Guardian is a terrible example, as no dev team had been working on that game throughout the 10 years. Rather gradually.
While with Dreams, MM has been working on the game with it‘s full team since the release of Tearaway.
As that has been said, this wasn‘t my point if Sony can "afford" or not, it‘s about being factual, this game really can‘t flop as everything I said before. My point was, there is no reason for fear for Media Molecule‘s sake. Everything will be fine with them.

@JAMes-BroWWWn since when was a team of 50 considered indi?

@Porco Did he say that? All I read was the budget is indie, which makes no sense. Even indie studios can have budgets on par with triple A games.

@InsertUsername well, i don't understand his rationale or what he is trying to say exactly. the game has been in development longer than the ps4 has been on the market... the budget must be pretty great by this point as the scope of the game has ballooned along with it. so i would disagree that the budget is not AAA at this point ($50m+). i think people should be very concerned for mm's future if this game does not sell well.

I'll admit that my interest in this game has dropped quite a bit. Hopefully the beta will change that.

@JAMes-BroWWWn Wasn't Tearaway Unfolded a 2015 game? That game had plenty of new content too. If Dreams is 2019, they've been working on it for four years with a full team (assuming some haven't started a new project already). I really don't think it's something to worry about.

@wiiware So you have to make your own game? I'll pass. That's like building a typewriter and selling it as a book...

@Useyourname From the beginning the source of the hype is for the game is "you can build anything in this game" (or play other people creations). Not all people like this kind of games, and that's okay.

@Porco 50 devs ain‘t really an indie studio but I meant indie budget as the MediaMolecule had two different team for a while. One team worked on Dreams while the other worked on Tearaway/Unfolded

@Porco lol you think Dreams costs are at 50 million?! Sorry buddy but you clearly lost your mind if you think so. HZD had reportedly costs around 45 millions €. A triple A game that was longer in development and had much more to it in every regard than Dreams.

@Porco I think it's a bit early to even be thinking about their future to be honest. We really don't have a clue on how much money they have spent on it, but I have to say I doubt it's anywhere near that much. Japan Studio spent years on The Last Guardian. It didn't sell in the millions, but the studio is doing just fine. I'm sure Media Molecule will survive regardless of what the outcome of sales for Dreams is. Just my opinion of course. They've have a great track record, so they have my confidence.

@Octane yeah that is what I‘m saying. MediaMolecule is save. I really don’t think their upcoming game, Dreams, will not need to sell millions of copies to be profitable. MM will be around for a while, fortunately.

@Useyourname From what I gathered, it will have its own single player campaign. However, the real focus of Dreams is being able to create. If that doesn't appeal to you, then you probably shouldn't spend your money on it.

@Octane MM is a team of between 50-60 employees. So it's expected that the game will take time with such a small group. Perhaps if their games end up selling more in the future, they may be able to expand.

@InsertUsername regarding the last guardian, the core team — team ico — was disbanded during the development process. japan studio only assisted with the production but was not part of the core team. during the long development period, some members of team ico left and went over to studio japan, while others left the company altogether. most of the key members went on to form a new independent studio, gendesign, which is led by fumito himself. gendesign worked as contractors in the latter stages of the last guardian development phase. so basically, the horrible development cycle of the game destroyed team ico you can say... the company was reborn and is now a separate entity from sony. it sounds like sony politely shut down team ico at some point but dedicated resources from other studios to help out and allowed fumito to continue the work independently. that is all we really know...

@JAMes-BroWWWn sure, i could be wrong, but so could you. suffice to say, the budget isn't below $10m to be sure. this is not an indi budget.

@Porco fair enough. Something we might find out when time passes by.

@Porco I'm always amused when people say "indie budget." Because there's really no such thing to be honest. Even indie studios can certainly have larger budgets equal to AAA games. No offense, of course.

depends on your definition of indi studio... in vast majority of cases, i don't think they have budgets comparable to AAA games. do you have any examples?