Concrete Genie team PixelOpus, which is a first-party developer part of PlayStation Studios, has put out a tweet saying it's being closed down. The post reads: "Dear friends, our PixelOpus adventure has come to an end. As we look to new futures, we wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to the millions of passionate players who have supported us, and our mission to make beautiful, imaginative games with heart. We are so grateful!" In a statement to IGN, Sony confirmed PixelOpus will be shuttered on 2nd June 2023.
Sony said: "PlayStation Studios regularly evaluates its portfolio and the status of studio projects to ensure they meet the organization’s short and long-term strategic objectives. As part of a recent review process, it has been decided that PixelOpus will close on June 2."
In June of 2021, PixelOpus had been hiring for a new PS5 game built in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation on Unreal Engine 5. This led to much speculation over what the project could be, with fans dreaming of a tie-in title with the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movies. It no longer looks like that experience will come to fruition.
PixelOpus also released Entwined, and has never been a particularly large developer within Sony in terms of how many employees it has. Still, Concrete Genie was one of the PS4's most unique experiences, and its loss will be felt on PS5.
Senior environment artist Bob Archibald adds: "I like to think that with Concrete Genie — we made the world an ever-so-slightly better place... and not too many games these days have the chance to try and do that. I will always be grateful for my time building imaginative worlds with this incredible team."
[source twitter.com]
Comments 171
Wow wonder what happened since they was working with Sony animation. I was looking forward to their next game.
Yet they were hiring for a PS5 project using unreal engine 5 in 2021. I take it Sony didn't like what they saw, combined with poor sales of concrete genie and entwined and thought its not worth it.
Shame. Concrete Genie was solid and looked like a sign of great things to come. Reminded me, in a way, of Puppeteer and Kena. Like they were one iteration away from an all out classic.
Sony boasting record breaking profits and closing yet another Studio. Not a dime better than EA and ActiBlizz lol. Media Molecule will be next.
Especially sad since then only Studio making AAAA Games will be left.
This genuinely makes me worried about Media Molecule now, making me worried if Asobi team will be the only one in charge of making games that don't boast "next gen visuals".
Surprising, it feels like they just started and were about to step up to bat with their next game to finally prove their worth, after 2 average, if intresting, efforts. Like said above, looks like Sony wasnt impressed with what they were developing. This, along with the closure of Dreams, feels like an end to Shuhei's left over experiments.
PlayStation: "We create diverse range of games"
Also PlayStation: completely under market their games that aren’t in a realistic setting with actual people so that it doesn’t make Ratchet & Clank money and then shutting the developer down
@SoulsBourne128 like with PixelOpus, it looks like it all depends on what they develop next, and if the head office likes it.
But yes Herman, please invest hundreds of Millions into GaaS Games that will shut down in a year lmao
I guess they weren't making a live service game then.
@ThorsHammer Really feels like Sony's focus on next gen games with that AAA feel is doing more damage than good. Heck, even with China Hero Project which is supposed to expand chinese games to overseas, unless the games we're talking about are FIST and Lost Soul Aside, they barely mentioned any of their other games, including those that are still in development hell like Pervader and AI Limit.
Sony needs to step up and start giving us a catalogue of diverse games that aren't just from making deals with indie studios or third party studios, bur from first party studios as well. I want more colorful first party games that aren't just next gen open world action or over-the-shoulder narrative-focused, and this is coming from someone who loves God of War, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, etc.
This legitimately pisses me off. Concrete Genie was honestly wonderful.
I really enjoyed concrete genie
This is out of nowhere. They've only made two games and were suppose to be working on a PS5 game. What happened for them to suddenly shut down?
Very sad 😞 Concrete Genie was great. PixelOpus were clearly a talented studio.
Maybe most people here won't care much about this since admittedly, Concrete Genie was pretty average (although I did platinum it). Still, I did appreciate its presentation and premise, if a bit flawed. For me, it at least had charm, and it was a decent breath of fresh air after playing so many exclusive that feels like they are all so focused on proving how graphically advanced they are.
What this tells me is that any studio that hasn't made a game that's on the same level as God of War, Horizon of Ghost of Tsushima yet are now threatened of being shut down, and I won't be happy if Media Molecule could be next, especially since Dreams is no longer getting any support (still no PC port btw which really hurts it). Fingers crossed that their next project will be a decent success, hopefully one that still has that Media Molecule charm while also getting ACTUAL marketing from Sony.
I get the feeling there's more to this than "Sony's just a ***** bunch of people". From what I gather, the studio was tiny. Like low double figures tiny. Almost like this was a team of people that should've been a part of another studio that just happened to strike out on their own one day. Which may just be what happened, given Pixelopus was never actually bought by Sony, but rather formed within them. Maybe the experiment has come to an end.
@Sam_ATLUS Herman and Ryan remembered that they are allergic to Games that arent CinematicTM or GaaS probably
Oh wow. That sucks.
Would have loved something else from them in all the PS5 glory
First Japan Studio, now this. Media Molecule likely next.
Whelp. There goes one from the list of studios "not working on an online MP GaaS game." Time to update the studio tracker page. First Japan Studio, and now this. It's like the good parts of Playstation that always drew me to the platform are down to only MM and Asobi now. For now.
With each day of Sony news reminding us they care only about online GaaS, and tried and true sequels to blockbuster spectacles, the better Redfall starts looking.
@Wheatly "This is also sad news because it furthers the homogenising of Sony's first party output and to be honest its the variation that made them great in the first place."
Exactly that. The werid and varied games and ideas from PS was the whole reason I played PS. The more they become a shinier EA, the more I wonder why I'm not just playing EAs games more.
Sad to hear this. Concrete Genie was a true gem (that I haven't played until it was on PS+, to be fair)
@NEStalgia dont be shocked if MM suffers the same fate in the next few months, or within the year. Asobi is likely safe for now because Astro has become a bit of a mascot, but for how long?
It was another Sony studio that didn't make the same old same old just like Japan Studio, If Mm next game isn't an instant hit they will be next on the chopping block.
A lot of judgements being made - I’m sure Sony had more concrete reasons to do this then just not liking their newest title.
That sounds like
Devs Gone
Guess only 19 studios now.
That's too bad. Hopefully everyone lands on their feet. I didn't really care for the stuff they put out myself but still. Sad to see.
@itsfoz I don't know, but Sony studios are starting to blend together when it comes to what kind of games they make. Really liked pixelopus and team asobi because the the unique games they make when compared to the rest of the first party.
Sony is a business if you don’t pull your weight you get shutdown.
All I've heard this year is. Sony is better at managing there first party studios as they invest in them rather than ruin them & close them. It's a shame as Stray & HiFi Rush popularity have shown there is a market for smaller AA titles in which to thrive. The PlayStation community pride themselves on there great games, so this should worry them.
Weird news for sure. We definitely need to hear more about what went down. Part of me thinks Sony wouldn't shutdown a talented team when they're still buying new studios as well. Other part of me knows Sony are heartless businessmen.
I played both of their games, and even if I didn't like them myself, I think a lot of creative people worked over there.
All of a sudden people care about this Studio and it's games? Should of supported them before then maybe they wouldn't be shutting down.
Concrete genie had poor sales and failed to even get into the top 20 on release, coming in at 35, also their only other game entwined also failed to reach decent figures hence why no one ever brings them up. Comparing them to Japan Studio and MM is absolutely ridiculous. They could of gone 10 years without making a game and I doubt most people would realise and then those same people act like Sony are bad for shutting them down.
Their team consisted of a whopping grand total of...... 9 people.
And I'd wager those 9 will be moved onto other playstation developers.
Hope they got merged somewhere else and they didnt all lose their jobs.
My only guess is that Sony wasnt happy with their progress on whatever they where working on and we were probably going to get a redfall 2.0 if they released it anytime soon.
Removed - trolling/baiting
@UltimateOtaku91 The game charted at #35 with a studio of 9 people without a marketing hype machine and without costing $150M to make. I'd say that was a wild success.
@Wheatly To the dismay of the internet crowd that thinks the cinematic action adventure is the be all end all final evolution of video games, I do think you're right about that winding down and having run its course. Unfortunately, though I think Sony itself is already largely moving on toward GaaS to try to milk MTX to the max. Follow the trend, but sell it as premium versions!
@Tharsman Yeah, I'm expecting MM to be gone. I think shutting down Dreams was the start of winding it down TBH.
Asobi probably has one good game left in them. Maybe VR. Maybe VR + one more. Astrobot is a mascot, but so was Sackboy. Once it doesn't light the charts on fire like their previous game what was free with the hardware, I imagine it sees the same fate.
@NEStalgia pretty sure playstation did market the game and especially pushed it as VR compatible during one of their big showcases, and millions watch those showcases.
@UltimateOtaku91
So, if a game does not break the top 20, the game nor the devs deserve to exist?
And yet Media Molecule remains…for now
Rubbish. I was really looking forward to their next game. Hope all the developers find alternative work soon!
@Magnus_Selene if anything Media Molecule should be the one being closed not Pixel. They spent 10 years on dream, all the talent is gone and their prior games werent big anyway
@Tharsman I'm not saying that, I'm just giving points to why Sony may have shut them down, they may have thought that was disappointing for a first party Studio, and/or not liked the look of their new game.
Personally I would of kept them on just to make VR games. That way those higher expectations wouldn't be so bad.
@Magnus_Selene yet another person speaking from a place of opinion opposed to business acumen. If you're not earning that means resources are being wasted on the lack of productivity. With your logic, a family member or friends can stay with you indefinitely while producing no resources no matter how much it costs you for them to remain there. These are billion dollar corporation, I'm sure we can both agree that they've got a formula to produce and maintain what neither of us has ever achieved. We do what's best for our endeavors and they do what's best for their's, right?
@Rmg0731 who understands their business better, you or Sony?
@SurgicalMenace If you put profits over everything you will end up as creatively bancrupt as Ubisoft and co lmao. An gazillion Seller like GoW R can easily fund smaller Games like Concrete Genie and more.
Thats how Nintendo does it with great success and Sony did before the PS4
@Rmg0731 DLC sales from Little Big Planet kept the Studio alive during the Dreams development lol, this was a massive IP
@Milt us: Okay, we're going to have to make some cutbacks so that we can save some money.
Also us: How dare they make cutbacks to better manage their working capital.
Loved Concrete Genie and I bought it on release. Sony really sent it out to die with no marketing at all I think all they got was a small mention on the psblog. I was really looking forward to see what they were going to do next 😔
That’s a shame. Concrete Genie was really fun.
I knew this was coming. Their skills don't align with Sonys new greedy "live service initiative" 🙄 Typical Jim Ryan lead Sony. Sign an unproven MP only studio like Firewalk just to shutdown a talented one like Pixel Opus. I really hope these GaaS that are coming fall flat on their face and this whole Fortnite money vision they have backfires.
@UltimateOtaku91
Actually, now that you bring that up... this might be them shutting down or downsizing future internal VR development plans.
@NEStalgia "the better Redfall starts looking."
Hey now, let's not go there lol if Sony had a hold of Redfall, the Ai would have been less bad and it would have atleast have more animated cutscenes. Regardless, I see your point.
@Rmg0731 MM are in a different situation, they are a name a lot of players know of because of what they did with little big planet, it became a playstation icon and household name and won them some awards. So when they bring out a game there's actually a lot more attention on them than Pixel Opus were getting as they were a new Studio who's first game was a flop hitting a 59 on metacritic, which these days don't meet Sony's standard from their own studios.
Id say Sony are quite strict, once something doesn't meet expections they move on. It happened with Killzone, it happened with Days Gone and unfortunately it's happened with this dev today.
Sony has a habit of closing its studios. It’s. It good at all them doing this. They should be using that studios talent for other things not firing them!
@Tharsman I dont think they had any big plans in the first place lol. Like...do they even remember they launched the VR2 in March?
how sad they didn't have a moment, only one popular game, they deserved more, its a shame they ended the way the have
@Magnus_Selene so says you, I put earning above all and it drives my creativity to a higher level to justify my costs. Sony is worlds ahead of me so I'm sure that they implement this exercise far better than I do. Sony delivers where Ubisoft doesn't because of their focus on achieving not because they focus too much on profits. To continue to be great you have to put your focus on earnings because greatness comes at a cost. A lot of people have never experienced greatness so they often speak vicariously through the accomplishments of others. How about we wait to see the results before comparing them to companies that haven't exhibited the same level of focus that Sony has? They're knocking the industry out of the park, damn near single handedly, so their judgement merits some respect, wouldn't you say?
@Tharsman Hmm Maybe, I just can't see Sony wasting money and time from their big AAA studios making games for the VR which will struggle to meet 5 million life time sales.
I think Horizon Call of the Mountain was a one off to draw people in and then fully rely on third party support going forward.
@UltimateOtaku91 They definitely marketed the game. I remember the devs had a slot on the couch at one of the big events the year it came out too.
It was just a niche title and never caught on.
I was looking at the list of Sony studios recently and when I glanced at the PixelOpus name I was genuinely surprised to see them still there. I dont say that with condescension, I was just surprised.
There are a lot of independent devs who make plenty of quirky and experimental games, and Sony funds or assists a lot of them.
It's a shame when any happy studio closes, but this won't leave a big old hole in the PlayStation library of any kind.
The lamentation here should only be about anyone who loses their job.
If anyone wants to support a small creative game on PlayStation please go and buy GrimGrimoire Once More, Kena, Tchia, Stray, or Humanity when it comes out.
@Ken_Kaniff that "live service" narrative makes up a very small percentage of their overall road map. I can't see why so many people continue to focus on just that avenue. They know what they have to do because they have to pay more than $70 to get the results that they want.
@UltimateOtaku91
Sony didnt shutdown Days gone, pitch of second game didnt make past top at Bend studios.
@Shepherd_Tallon You're totally right, it's probably cheaper and better for Sony to fund marketing and timed exclusive deals with smaller games like Tchia, Stray and Kena Bridge of Spirits which have all been reported to be very successful on playstation, yet one of their own smaller first party titles wasn't (twice).
@S1ayeR74 so you've applied for the CEO position, right? Man, I hope you get it. I'll be rooting for you, champ.
@Neverwild Ah I thought sony killed the idea of a sequel due to poor sales of the first game.
https://www.xfire.com/days-gone-2-cancellation-reason/
Seems like Sony were just not interested.
@NEStalgia
What has Sackboy with this to do? Sackboy was made by another studio that later was bought by Tencent.
You make it sound Sony shut Sackboy down.
@Magnus_Selene when you go to work and make more than your neighbor do you give them your extra so they can survive? No. When your neighbor loses his/her job do offer to work for them so they can pay their bills? No. SM producing their earning to generate the budget needed for their next project not to fund the project of another dev team.
@UltimateOtaku91
Nope it didnt even reach Sony.
But perhaps Sony wouldnt like it either.
@Neverwild Who did tencent buy?
Little big planet was made by MM which sony own and sackboy on ps5 was made by sumo digital and Sony also still own them. Sackboy is still fully a Playstation IP and can make another game whenever they want and I honestly think they will especially if the new sackboy mobile games garners a lot of attention.
Sad times. Concrete Genie is one of the most beautiful games ever made imo. Truly stunning. Thanks for the games 🥰
No one played their game even when it was on Plus, but now everyone it's sad lol
Funny how things work in this industry. Something similar happened to Titanfall 2. Everyone loves to say how good the game is, but its multiplayer is basically dead since 2017, it didn't last a year.
@Neverwild I don't know why not, Days Gone had decent sales (over 8 million) and got millions more players when it went to playstation plus.
Sony has a support studio in the same city (San Mateo Studio), they will likely be working there after shutting it fully down.
@SurgicalMenace You know that this is a unlogical comparsion right? The better one is how Miyamoto said that with success of Games like Mario and Zelda they could continue the Pikmin series (even tho those always sold poorly). Thats also how Sony did it, Shawn Layden even spoke about this after he left SIE
Hey at least Sony can beat the "hates japan" allegations since the whole japan studios kerfuffle.
Jokes aside, the only game I've ever seen of the studio (at least marketing wise) was concrete genie. Even saw the game at gamescom a few years ago, but I was incredibly unimpressed and never took another glance at the game.
People always talk about games needing to be quirky or whatever, if the game isn't good it doesn't matter how quirky it is because people won't care. Or at least enough people to make a game worth the cost in the eyes of the publisher at least.
I don't revel in the closure of studios, but the gaming landscape unfortunately is no charity.
Wow thats crazy.i play concrete genie couple years ago.it was a cool experience.pixelopus is a talented studio.sony got to explain that.and buy ember lab.and other single player studios.word up son
@UltimateOtaku91 @Neverwild It's funny how everyone's confusing their studios. Sackboy (the character) is part of the Little Big Planet IP owned by Sony, created by Media Molecule (a Sony Studio.) The most recent game titled "Sackboy: A Big Adventure" was made by a third party, Sumo Digital, which has since been purchased by Tencent. But they just made one game for Sony, the charcter, IP is Sony's, and the studio that created it, MM is the one some of us worry will also be closed after the failure of Dreams, along with Astrobot creator Asobi, a remnant of the closed Japan Studio, as Sony seems to cycle through thier mascots at alarming pace.
Not really impressed with sony shuttering this slightly left of field studio what with Japan studio its a shift to games without risk!
Concrete Genie was great. One of my top PS+ games. I was looking forward to their next thing.
Looks like herman closed another studio. Guess he'll greenlight another horizon game which will make what 5?
@NEStalgia I didn't even know Sumo was purchased by Tencent lol I checked their wiki page and it doesn't even mention tencent, in the history section the last thing noted was that sumo bought a polish developer.
But yeah I searched it and the deal closed last year after a few problems along the way.
But theres no reason Sony couldn't ask them to still make a little big planet game, heck I don't think tencent has even done anything with them since the purchase or announced anything new.
I enjoyed Concrete Genie, but I suppose I wasn't interested enough in it to buy it and played it on PS+. That's likely the problem.
I didn’t really like Concrete Genie but this is incredibly sad. Homogenisation just isn’t good for Sony’s output.
@NEStalgia
Sumo Digital has been part of Little big planet, Little big planet 3 and Sackboy so they have been part of main game more then Media molecule.
Media molecule was part of 1, 2 and some side games.
Concrete Genie was interesting but mediocre. Still, it was imaginative, and the developer felt like they had potential. A potential that will now never be realized.
Media Molecule's heads will be the next to roll.
Entwined is probably the worst game I own. And I paid full whack for it 😒
This is sad to hear. CG was a pretty solid game imo. I know sales wasn't the best but i put that on Sony's head. The marketing for this game was extinct.
Same names, same overreactions and negativity to anything Sony does. The game also had a ton of marketing, so that nonsense narrative can stop.
Concrete Genie didn't perform particularly well on release and I bet a lot of the people condemning this didn't actually bother supporting it and only played it when it came to PS Plus. Yet despite it doing poorly sales wise, Sony green-lit them for another project. Absolutely no one here knows how they've been performing on that project over the past few years, and Sony obviously reviewed what they'd done up to this point and weren't happy with it. You don't just keep throwing money at something if you're not getting results.
But of course, omg gaas games, omg Japan studio, omg Media Molecule next.
I really wish Sony did genres other than single player cinematic action games with often unnecessary lite RPG elements.
I get that and why they’re popular but I stuck with the PS3 that entire generation because of Little Big Planet with a little help from InFamous and the old God of War games.
Why not take a crack at a full RPG or a less movie-feeling sorta game…
@Wheatly "For all of the ills of Xbox - and there are many, at least there is variety in their releases."
Because they can absorb the costs and use them as padding for a subscription service. Do you think a first party game like Pentiment gets released today without gamepass?, because I don't think there's a chance in hell it does.
@SurgicalMenace Just wait till they have there next showcase and every game from them is live service besides what was announced years ago. Nothing is going to be like what we got during the PS4 era that made them successful. Jim Ryan and Herman Hulst are slimy business mean that only care about jumping on the GaaS trend right when it's going downhill. They desperately want to catch lightning in a bottle like Fortnite and GTA5 did.
@ThorsHammer "This, along with the closure of Dreams, feels like an end to Shuhei's left over experiments."
You make a good point, when Shu was Head of PS Studios creativity was really encouraged and teams got alot of freedom. I liked that. But if I'm honest it was also a time with alot of games that had bloated development time like Dreams taking nearly 7 years, The Last Guardian taking over 7 years and games from Japan Studios not selling well. It seems the new regime want to put a stop to that ☹
A shame to see this news.
PixelOpus was a very small team, largely comprised of university graduates if I recall correctly.
I think the problem for this team, much like Japan Studio before it, is the kind of games it was making are on a similar scale to the highly promoted indie titles we see, like Tchia, Kena, Stray, and the upcoming Humanity.
I think Sony sees more value in uplifting those projects than making them itself these days. I think Sony thinks its first-party budget is better spent on those tentpole titles that only it can do, like God of War and Horizon.
Obviously it's a shame, but I can't necessarily say it's the wrong decision.
As usual all the hypocrisy rises to the top in these situations. Oh what a great game, oh what a great developer etc etc
But did any of you even buy concrete genie? Or did you just ignore it till it was free because you didn't think it was worth paying for
Same old story with gamers
@Wheatly Of course you don't care, because acknowledging the reasons why would contradict the point you're trying to make. Where were the "creative, inventive experiences that occasionally manage to surprise and delight" throughout the entirety of the last generation?
Man, I was excited to see what their next game was going to be.
Has always the usual lot come out, pretending that they cared about Pixel Opus even though I bet most hadn't even played Concrete Genie.
The apparent " no marketing" is false driven by those with short memories, it appeared on Sony conferences and SoPs as well as Plus. What were yer expecting? Times Square billboards?
At the end of the day they were a tiny studio that Sony built to make "indie style" games. But really why bother when Sony can market games like Kena, Stray and Tchia without the development cost.
We're past the days of PS1 people, it's time to move on.
@Wheatly "I don't care because I don't have to. I can want a particular sort of game and not have to worry about the business model that makes it.
Sure, but Sony does need to worry about those things.
"Celeste, Hades, Dead cells, Outer Wilds were all fantastic little gems too."
I couldn't agree more, but they're all 3rd party, as was the incredible Cuphead and Psychonauts. You'll always see a lot more chances being taken by 3rd party studios.
Xbox's business model has changed and that's something Sony can't financially replicate. Everything Sony does needs to sell, that's not the case for MS anymore. There will be a continuation of smaller diverse games put out by them going forward because they have a shorter dev cycle and can be thrown straight on to gamepass. You might not care about that, but it should at least be considered when you question why Sony aren't doing the same.
This seems like Sonys version of the tech layoffs and restructuring that have been all over the Industry lately. I wonder if there is more bad news coming.
Doesn't build much confidence in the future of psvr.
Kind of a bummer, but Concrete Genie honestly never clicked with me. I liked the style a lot, however the actual gameplay was underwhelming. I found playing it pretty tedious.
I agree with comments that said they might have been a game away from something truly great.
Concrete Genie was cool. There was potential for something bigger & better.
@Neverwild I did forget about 3. But I didn't know they were part of 1. That's even more sad they're tencent now if so.
I still loved snake pass lol
@UltimateOtaku91 Yeah usually when tencent buys anyone it's to throw them into the mobile gacha grist mill unfortunately unless they're just buying part of something like epic. I doubt they'll be using sumo for games like sackboy, which is a shame because that's just such a great game. It was a good swansong for old sumo if anything.
I really enjoyed Concrete Genie. Was really looking forward to what they would do next.
Good. Screw them indie niche titles.
More AAA GaaS and SP
This happens shortly after Angie smets took her role, I'm sure this was part of the restructuring of development within PlayStation and a sign of the type of games we'll get in the future, big AAA games, no more smaller charming games like we love
Why are people acting so dramatic?
It was just a team of <10 members who were not successful in gaining attention by making high-quality games. So, they'll have to get absorbed to other development teams. That's it.
So figured I would go down the rabbit hole to see how many games studios Sony has shut down, after reading somewhere that this is actually the fifth studio Sony has shut down since 2016 and figured I would post the list here:
I know a lot of people constantly ask "where is SOCOM/MotorStorm/Wipeout?" well... that's where.
Gonna say something people won't wanna hear, but nothing of value was lost here. Seriously, what have these guys made for PlayStation in the past decade that was noteworthy?
@Magnus_Selene that was the old market opposed to now where everyone should carry their own weight making a more successful portfolio of earners. The Nintendo philosophy is greatly different from Sony's where the later pushes technology over ease of play. Sony has new tech with each generation where as Nintendo tends to stick to old practices and it shows in the content that they produce. Nintendo isn't concerned with the new tech found in higher end devices where as Sony creates tech to compliment new development. This makes them push for everyone to be responsible for their place in the new climate of gaming. It takes more money to develop games that push the envelope, such as Horizon, over games like BotW that could run on older tech. There's nothing illogical about this approach it's only illogical to compare a more technologically driven company to a more nostalgic one. This is just my observation though, I may be wrong.
@Ken_Kaniff you're right, God forbid they attempt to capitalize on a genre that's very alive and well. FF14, Fortnite, GTA, Genshin, or the like are all successful based on a particular formula that any company that understands it can also succeed in. There are plenty unsuccessful examples that can be explored but you only consider what they done to fail while replicating what the others have done to successfully sustain. Call of Duty and Apex both managed to dethrone Pubg while having no previous example of its formula. Innovations is often time just refinement of old ideas. Steven Jobs managed to dethrone Sony in the portable music devices by making a better Walkman. Sony has created damn near every format since their lose to VHS in the 80's by producing options that had more memory and the ability to be assimilated into multiple devices. Just wait for the results before you speculate about a system that you're on the outside of. Perhaps you're right but wait until the results materialize to support your claims. Just a thought.
Sony should buy Ember Lab.
@theMEGAniggle "no more smaller charming games like we love" but don't actually buy.
There. Fixed that for ya.
Damn shame to hear this, I was secretly hoping the untitled project they were working on was a Sly Cooper game, or a Spiderverse tie-in game.
@Tharsman Thanks for taking the time to write up that list!
@Tharsman "So, if a game does not break the top 20, the game nor the devs deserve to exist?"
So, if a t-shirt shop doesn't sell many t-shirts, the shop doesn't deserve to stay open?
It's business.
And once more Sony doubles down on its trend of making stagnant and boring cinematic AAA games only for the basic minded and boring masses.
@naruball I actually bought those games, including Puppeteer, Entwined, and both Gravity Rush games day 1. Despite Sony not bothering to market them or even try to support them. So yeah, I will hold it against them, and I somewhat hold it against the shallow ass Sony playerbase that never breaks out of their comfort zone and only cares about the AAA nu-Playstation spoon feeds them with all their sanded down gameplay and characters explaining how to solve the brain dead puzzle in front of them.
I love the fact many are just accusing Sony of shutting another studio down and for it not being a AAA studio.
Without actually knowing the facts.
The facts we know.
PixelOpus was a internal developer, not a we bought this developer for its talents.
No this was actually created inside by Playstation, with taking top level students from universities, 9 to be exact.
As of 2019 PixelOpus had 12 to 19 developers and that is all.
Both games were unique but didn't really light the world on fire.
What this actually shows is, they started the project with Sony Animations, was to big of a project for such a small team and hadn't progressed as much as it should in the time frame.
Unless told otherwise, I believe these talented members will be folded into another team, which is alot bigger to finish off the project together.
Remember this team was an experiment and a great learning curve for those students.
Shame. But I guess in the end their ideas did not work out.
I would assume that studios are not shutdown because a game flopped, but because of the next project not looking convincing, or because there are too many problems within the team(s) or between the studio and higher up management.
@3Above very true, his regime saw lots of cool stuff emerge, but also alot of odd stuff that didnt click. Even worse, say at the end of PS3 era, one of the most creative periods, they pumped out cool stuff like Puppeteer or Rain, but they got lost due to no marketing and bigger first party stuff taking spotlight.
@Sakisa You know you don’t have to look down on people with certain tastes in games. Your opinion is not better than theirs it is just different and holds absolutely no higher value. The disdain you show for fans of Sony’s AAAs suggests you have endless time to try a variety of different games but out in the real world people have jobs, families and commitments. Your standard casual gamer doesn’t read up on the deep cuts on gaming websites so if they can only play a handful of games a year it’s going to be your God of Wars, Horizons or Ratchets because they show off the technology that they have spent £450-£500 on. It doesn’t make them wrong, it certainly doesn’t make you better, it makes everyone human. Get over yourself.
@naruball obviously they're shutting down because it's not mainstream, don't need to be facetious
@Fuzzymonkeyfunk it was literally a part of a bigger showcase...
@SoulsBourne128 it looks like the current trend will continue though. PixelOpus was really their attemp at an 'indie' style studio internally, and they were formed as that scene was booming, but it didnt pay off after 2 games, and the third game they were developing was something supposedly out of their scope and we can see what happened. We got to remember that when playstation got into the creative, experimental phase at the end of PS1, there was no indie scene at all, so experimentation had to happen internally. Now you have endless creative experimental games coming out every month, so its ripe for picking. They seem to cut a deal to help publish promising ones at second party, and put them on a pedistool with PS Plus Extra. We've seen it with Stray, Tchia, and now (the very Japan Studio looking) Humanity. I see your point and am nostalgic about the old era, but the industry and Sony hsve changed, and im fine with getting those type of games via second party, instead of them being overly pressurised within house. You can imagine the young PixelOpus had a rough time sitting next to giants like Naughty Dog or Insomniac, whereas indepently they wouldnt have that same comparison and could be judged on their own merits.
@Wardenknight133 I would like more of those games. A new entry like Dark Cloud it doesnt need to be triple A or even the worse AAAA like i heard somewhere else.
We need more smaller games with a smaller budget and more freedom like fun double A smaller budget with more risk. The PS1 and PS2 where so special because there where some smaller fun games. Heavenly Sword should have been €40 to make up for the short playing time because the game was fantastic to play.
Not all the games should be blockbuster games and a smaller with atleast some mention of being released not a footnote in big add campaing with Blockbusters.
It also shows why we need Sony, Microsoft and even Nintendo to back off. So not everything gets swallowed up and dissappear when the big three don't see enough profit. Let's hope the indie games industry grows and stays independent.
@ThorsHammer But why should everything be a massive thing how about the smaller games that bring back there money and add to your library. I know investors and big corp only want to make money and not take the effort invest in their brand. It's like they are getting to big for their own good.
Before my rant I totally get where you are coming from and it's such a waste where the biggest companies only see potential in the biggest franchises.
My hope for things like lower priced game like Dark Cloud seem further away then ever. Also pushing for triple or quadruple A is pushing away the more passionate group of developers and it shows as gamers we should stop looking at only the Blockbuster games you miss so many smaller gems that are so rewarding to play.
@Intr1n5ic Nonsense you don't need a subscription to soak up the costs how about smaller budgets not everything need to look like the next big thing. Double A games smaller budgets and more experimental.
@naruball Its on the gamers as well because we all leave these little gems to die. Games like for me a Dark Cloud where fun and relaxing without being the next big thing just fun and rewarding games.
@daveofduncan I’m talking about the release date. I remember seeing it at the showcase but Sony gave it no marketing whatsoever when it released apart from a blogpost it didn’t even feature on the store which is really bad for a first party game
@Flaming_Kaiser I didn't say you "need" a subscription to absorb costs, I said MS can absorb the costs and take more chances because they don't have to worry about whether or not the game will sell.
@Flaming_Kaiser yup. We can't complain if we're not buying them. That's why I prioritize buying games close to full price from smaller studios. I know God of War can wait. But Kena needed all the sales it could get.
@Sakisa Sony promoted plenty of games that failed to sell well. Obviously they promote more games that show more potential to be big hitters, but I don't think these games failed because of Sony. Rather because of the fanbase, as you mentioned.
Whenever a good game fails to sell, people come up with all sorts of excuses, but at the end of the day, other games have a ton of things going against them and still sell well. For example, many said that Puppeteer was unlucky to come out towards the end of ps3's life, but that didn't stop The Last of Us from being successful.
@NEStalgia It's very concerning just how much focus Sony is giving to live service even though there's a big live service graveyard forming from all the games shutdown recently. It almost feels like in around 10 years time there'll be a Push Square article with a headline like "Epic Games acquires Sony Interactive Entertainment to work on Fortnite" because Sony's live service push didn't work.
They definitely made me smile whilst playing Concrete Genie, really good little game with a nice story. Platinum-ed it but never tried it in VR, might boot up the PSVR over the weekend just to try it
Very disappointed by this news! It wasn’t a perfect game but it was interesting and different and a lot of fun regardless.
I really hope the team are able to stick together and reform in a new studio.
It’s probably way harder for a small game like Concrete Genie to do well on one platform. Sony is probably going to buy epic games. Three of their games are in the top 20 played on ps5, Sony has already invested around 5% stake in them and it would join Bungie as another slap in the face to Microsoft as they would now own the Halo and Gears original studios. It would also increase their live service expertise. Sony has maintained a close relationship with Epic ever since Paragon was introduced at the PlayStation experience and if you remember FortNite was exclusive to ps4 while Xbox had Pubg. FortNite is the top played game on ps5. Also Epic is valued around 32 billion and Sony is around 120 billion.
Genie was charming but the gameplay was awkward. Which is understandable for a very small studio. It was a perfect psplus game. That being said most of Sony's big budget games are all becoming samey. Horizon, GOW, Uncharted, Spider Man. They're all good but all in the style of blockbuster movies, which gets old.
Another creative studio shut down, while Sony doubles down on extremely similar SP games, and live service games. All while Sony is nowhere near going bankrupt, and good easily afford to fund these games even if there was a small loss. The PS brand is really going down the gutter. I miss when Playstation's first party games where actually diverse and risky, instead of safe and generic.
@Flaming_Kaiser i get your point, but the reason we dont get smaller games from them is because the market is literally drowning with smaller games, so there is no need to make them, simply get a year exclusive contract for ps plus (or as with Xbox, game pass) and thats all that is needed nowadays, whereas pre-Xbox Arcade this market didnt exist so it had to be internal. Addtionally, Nintendo is really the smaller game hub with indies exploding on the Switch only in a third party capacity, but we never argue they should also be making smaller games internally outside their Zeldas and Marios, instead they are applauded for giving those games a thriving console platform. Sony at least will publish and spotlight smaller creative games on their subscription service, but they have also just proven they will crush them if they own them...so better for us, they keep them seperate.
@ThorsHammer Yeah, I loved Rain but so few people even know about it. I feel Puppeteer was probably one of the nails in the Japan studio coffin sadly, along with Gravity Rush 2. Great experiences that just didnt sell. It's funny how based on online chatter/sentiment (Especially for Gravity Rush) you would think these titles would sell really well but in reality they dont.
I bought it day one but none of my friends did.
Wtf 😔
Sure let's make more third party action adventure games and live service games instead of stuff that's actually different and happens to be good 🥲
@SoulsBourne128
Yup, big fan of stuff like God of War, Spider-Man and looking forward to Wolverine as well but I'd also like to see more games along the lines of Ratchet & Clank.
@Suda51ueda Wow! You really need to grow up and stop with the pathetic fanboy comments.
"And Sony is brilliant because they're the best and they make PlayStation and all my friends have one and they're cool and only nerds have Xbox and they smell....."
@Grumblevolcano 😂 While even I'm not quite that cynical about how badly it will all go, there's too much truth to that. Nobody wants to see the Sony monopoly, but this is what a monopoly can do, ignore their customers and invest all the money into chasing other markets they don't know how to win in. I always cite the Kmart model. They were tops and knew it, stopped investing in their stores because customers had no choice, invested in buying a bunch of other companies that all failed, and in the end their stores were outdated and inefficient and nobody shopped there anymore and they went from monopoly to 2 interested understocked stores they won't even tell investors where they are.
@ThorsHammer I have not seen a lot of smaller stuff I really like a Dark Cloud is something I have not seen for a long time. I don't know what happend maybe to much pressure thats why I say a smaller budget and take of the pressure. Sony does have high standards and I can understand it's easy to crack.
@SurgicalMenace I'm going to save your name so we can double back to this conversation in six months to a year.
@Intr1n5ic “The game also had a ton of marketing, so that nonsense narrative can stop…”
Well, all I remember is that the day of Concrete Genie’s release, Sony decided to ignore it completely and instead make the big blowout reveal of PS5’s specs and release window. All the gaming media and gamers’ attention swarmed to soak up all the excitement of the new console specs and news. There was absolutely no room for this little PixelOpus game to breathe. It was metaphorically pushed aside and buried on the very day it hit stores and the spotlight fully shined on the PS5, a console which wouldn’t release to the public until 13 months later.
Could Sony have simply waited a week or two before having PS5 reveal info cannibalizing all the media attention away from its new small 1st party release? A game which needed all the attention it could get? I’m pretty sure the PS5 hype would have been just as effective if it was revealed a few weeks later while allowing media outlets and blogs to report on CG impressions.
Personally, I follow Push Square closely and was adequately amped for CG and bought it (and enjoyed it) day 1. Same as I’ve done for Returnal, Dreams, Gravity Rush 2, Tearaway, and several other smaller first party titles. I tend to wait for sales on games like God of War, TLoU2, Horizon FW since I know those games will sell well and don’t need my support quite as much. I did contribute to day 1 sales of HZD and GoT because they were unproven new IP’s and so I tried to get my full support for them. I’m a big proponent of trying to encourage the industry to experiment a little and create new IP. I try to do this because the rank and file gamers seem to be reluctant to support new IP and these smaller progressive titles. The top 10 charts tend to be the same games over and over. I hate it, but it’s just the way it goes.
@Fuzzymonkeyfunk @daveofduncan See my post above ⬆️.
The issue to me was just the slap in the face when they rolled out the PS5 specs on the day of the game’s release, effectively stealing any chance of a little release day hype for the game.
Truly a shame, CG was good imo.
@Th3solution wouldn't you say that Dreams got a ton of promotion from Sony? Yet it failed to sell well. It is what it is. Some games simply fail to attract a significant audience no matter how much or how well they are marketed.
@Th3solution I completely forgot about that 😔
@Th3solution I don't think the release of the Wired interview on that day impacted it in any way. Concrete Genie had been shown off in showcases, written about on the blog, it had it's own dev deep dive where they spoke to the team and introduced details about the story and gameplay. If people were interested in it then they were made well aware of its release date in advance. The sad truth is, it was the type of game that doesn't do particularly well sales wise.
The important thing here has nothing to do with Concrete Genies sales though. The studio was green lit for another project, they were working on that for 3 years. As Sammy mentions above and I tried to allude to earlier, if that was coming along well and Sony was impressed with what they were doing, Pixelopus doesn't get shut down. That obviously wasn't the case.
Removed - inappropriate
@EfYI Was there a need to make a stupidly ignorant comment and refer to Jade Raymond as a "girlpet" or "gold digger"?
I would argue that people who make those types of comments make the world a slightly less better place.
@Magnus_Selene I think that MM is actually independent from Sony. Their game Knights and Bikes are on a bunch of other consoles so they could do games that aren't Sony exclusives as well
@Intr1n5ic
Maybe, I stand to be corrected. I was right about that scammer who swindled himself and studio to money. Arguably, their demo is more than what Haven has brought to the table. As soon as they produce news or games, my comments, and others, will truly be erased. I will be the first to acknowledge the queen (of Assassin's)
@Fighting_Game_Loser No they arent lol. And the Game you mentioned was developed by Foam Sword Games and published by Double Fine. Not MM
@Fighting_Game_Loser those were former MM developers. They made it through Kickstarter.
No room for smaller games in modern Sony
@naruball I do think Dreams got a fair amount of promotion from Sony, and like you say, some games just don’t sell well and that’s just the way it is. 🤷🏽
But I do think Sony could have promoted and rolled out Dreams better, even if they didn’t overtly sabotage it like they did with Concrete Genie.
My main bugbear though is the repeated complaints about lack of diversity in Sony’s first party output. And here we see time and again the experimental and creative games aren’t being bought and there’s just not a very big market for them. Which is fine, but then if you’re not going to buy these games then don’t complain. (Not you, I mean, but speaking to the public at large 😄)
@Intr1n5ic It’s a fair point about PixelOpus’s next project being the main issue. It’s possible Concrete Genie was financially successful, given its low budget.
Although I do think the Wired article had an effect, even if it was small one. I’ve seen instances where release timing can make a difference, especially that first week when a game often makes its most money. Although I’m sure it didn’t kill the game like EA did releasing Titanfall 2 right on top of Battlefield 1, nevertheless I do remember coming to Push Square excitedly expecting some chatter about the latest first party release, only to be inundated with PS5 specs and multiple articles about number of CPU cores, GHz, SSD speeds, etc, etc.
In the end, the effect was probably negligible on CG’s success, but was totally uncalled for. They’d have never done that to Spider-Man or The Last of Us.
@Magnus_Selene Oh my bad lol. I remember seeing their name next to it and thought they fully developed it lol
The good news is that it sounds like these guys will be transferred to other Sony studios.
That’s better than what Microsoft pulled a few months ago. Least they won’t be unemployed.
@Th3solution
The problem with Dreams was that it should have been released day and date on PC with cross play with PS4 owners. And a PS5 version should have been ready at launch.
That would have helped that game IMMENSELY. PC gamers eat creative development games up.
@OrtadragoonX They dont, one of the Devs on Twitter said that he hopes he and everyone else will land on their feets again. Since well, they were all layed off
Shame! Sonys focus on big budget games will be there down fall at some point.
@Th3solution "In the end, the effect was probably negligible on CG’s success, but was totally uncalled for. They’d have never done that to Spider-Man or The Last of Us."
I agree in part. I don't think there was anything malicious about the timing, that wouldn't make any sense, but it likely wouldn't of happened on the same day as a flagship title release.
@Th3solution oh, yeah. I couldn't agree more about diversity.
Sony usually does pretty well with marketing, but there have been a few really good games where Sony’s severely sucked in this regard. Puppeteer is one of ‘em. MAG is another. Gravity Rush and GR 2 come to mind. And Concrete Genie is a final nail in the coffin.
Concrete Genie is a really solid—albeit niche—game, and it was hurt badly by poor marketing (or, perhaps, I should say “utter and complete lack of marketing”). In places, Concrete Genie is magical and amazing—majestic, original, and mind-bendingly beautiful. In other places, it’s damn depressing. It’s slow and plodding. It tackles bullying, and it succeeds, but it also fails because it’s a tough topic that mainstream gamers aren’t going to jump up and down for excitedly.
I wish the employees the best of luck. They’re a talented group, no denying that.
@Intr1n5ic Yeah, I also doubt any maliciousness or ill intent. I think it’s more a matter of clumsy management, poor internal communication, etc.
@Magnus_Selene
Well that’s crappy of Sony.
They should have reassigned them.
This is a real shame, Concrete Genie wax an excellent family game with a beautiful style and an engaging story.
I feel sad at this loss. I always loved Sony because alongside their big guns and generic games, they had studios making more unique and imaginative titles such as Concrete Genie, Shadow of the Colossus, Journey, Gravity Rush, Pupeteer etc. It just feels that those days are coming to an end.
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