Sucker Punch Thinks Only 10% of Studio Would Be Hyped to Make Sly Cooper

Well the other 90% are d**ks so because it would be great!!

That’s too bad. That being said, I’d only want another Sly if they disregarded Thieves in Time. It was basically a badly written fanfic made into a game.

Would never say no to more Sly Cooper. But I want something for inFamous 10x as bad. Whether it's an HD collection (which criminally has never happened) or a surprise sequel or etc.

The 3D platformer era on the PS2 was the best. I mean it was so good that Sony made a PS Move game featuring the big 3 stars, and the game didn't even have a jump button, that's how big of stars they were. That 2013 game felt meh. Nothing wrong with it, just unnecessary. Like, I didn't need it, I could just play the original trilogy.

I would very much take another Infamous game, or a 3D platformer that wasn't Sly, just like Sly, but I don't need another Sly.

I’ve never played them but having watched a fair bit of gameplay, it definitely wouldn’t be for me anyway. inFAMOUS please… electrified inFAMOUS.

Sadly jumps and presses the circle button

Here's an idea. What if you let that 10% make the next Sly Cooper game? Crazy, right?

20 years is a long time. That’s probably an average number of staff to have remained at a team this long.

Just please give us a new Sly 🙏🏾

I’ve come to terms with the fact that our lord and savior Sly Cooper is permanently vaulted but it will never stop hurting when articles like these appear.

I remember reading somewhere that only 30% of The Last of Us Part II Naughty Dog made Uncharted 4. Makes you wonder how many of that Sucker Punch team were part of it during the Infamous days, let alone Sly Cooper

I unfortunately agree with the last two paragraphs. after recently replaying through the three games (we don’t talk about thieves in time) on my ps3 earlier this year, while still good games, really are a product of their time & it pains me to say it cuz i loved this series as a kid. It’s really telling when i liked sly 1 the absolute LEAST of the three games but now think its the best as a young adult - i think the first game ironically aged better in terms of its gameplay loop, i even platinumed it!

As long as they give us more Astro Bot, but it would be nice to have another platformer. Since those usually dont take as long to make, it might be a nice way to have some games in between the big ones.

I’m still waiting for the Sly Cooper movie.

All I want is for them to continue the infamous series. That franchise has so much more to offer. It would be tragic for them to completely be done with it.

@Danloaded twirls heads around out of sheer boredom

Sounds perfect. Give a small budget to that 10% and let em work.

Yeah the team that gave us Ghost of Tsushima and the team that’s going to smash it with its sequel should go back and make, uh, Sly Cooper…

Fair enough. But maybe Sony could let an external studio take a shot at the IP?

Even that 10% though could probably bust out some smaller side projects like a Cooper sequel or something new would be awesome . I can't imagine all of them wanted to just be stuck in a current Sony IP sequel Factory forever making ghost games for the rest of their existence lol.

Or like poor insomniac stuck with Marvel

These studios are big enough now where it seems like they could work on multiple projects of varying size and add much needed diversity back to Sony's portfolio.

I don't think Sucker Punch needs to do a Sly Cooper if they feel like they wouldn't want to make one, I just wish that of they wanted to do so, they could make a new games in a different styles from what they've been doing for the past 2 decades or so, at least visually.

+1 for another Sly game, I love em.

Really fun mechanics and actually playing through Thieves in Time on Vita (platted it on PS3 yonks ago) and having a great time.

I'd also love a new Spiro game!

I cant see the gaming community giving a new game a good reception.

@Veritas7Ax This. Also, as much as I can see why a new Sly game wouldn't excite them, that doesn't mean they have to ignore the series. Atleast a remaster collection for PS5 and PC would be nice to have. If not, let another developer handle the series. Personally, I think one sequel is enough if it's to redeem the franchise after the lackluster latest installment.

@12AngryCats correct

@Ultrasmiles some people just want to watch the world burn

Though, a Carmelita Fox spin-off could be fun

Let's face it Sly wouldn't bring in any where near the sales that Ghost does plus Ghost is a much more appealing and in my opinion much better game overall. Sony should not be taking risks on smaller IP's like this because the risk of flopping is high and may effect the Studio with lay offs in the future. Just stick to what the majority of their fans want and that's visually stunning blockbuster games.

What a shame.. Sucker Punch peaked with Sly 2. I'd like to see them revisit the series at some point.

But what about less expensive games to make that are not deadline heavy with super duper graphics & storylines that can be time consuming, buggy and complex that leads the gameplay percentage to be thought about alot less in the development process.

Hollow Knight springs to mind within reason.

The fact we have a new Bubsy and no hint of a new Sly Cooper is an indication of everything that’s wrong in the world. I don’t know how, or why, it just is.

Hey hold on now guys he might be on to something, tbh I don’t even think Ubisoft is really all that thrilled to make a new Rayman

@UltimateOtaku91 So just let a smaller team that knows what Sly Cooper is take a chance at it.

Sony western studios are stuck making nothing but "deep cinematic experience". Crash, Spyro, Jak, Ratchet, Sly - all dead.

@Nepp67 I think they will be better off renting out the IP to a third party, but let Sucker Punch QA test the game before release.

I really enjoy sly cooper but I think its probably had its time, can't see a new modern game playing that well. Also wouldnt want a dev like sucker punch on it, they've got ghosts and if not that I'd like a new infamous or new IP.

If a smaller, trusted dev team can pitch something, it wouldnt be a bad idea to let somebody else do something with it though.

Where most people got into Ratchet and Clank or Jak and Daxter, I was playing Sly Cooper; I even remember entering the giveaways they did on Toonami back in the day.

Sucker Punch, make a new Sly Cooper. If we can get MediEvil back, Sly has his place as well lol

@Dalamar

Sony western studios are stuck making nothing but "deep cinematic experience". Crash, Spyro, Jak, Ratchet, Sly - all dead.

Fortunately eastern studios still make games like Astrobot.

But just wanted to say, Sony doesn’t own the Crash and Spyro IP. Microsoft does, and if rumours are to be believed there might be a Spyro revival.

Oh, and a new Ratchet & Clank game released 4 years ago

Honestly what's new, there are so many IPs that I would love to see make a comeback that are just dead in the water.

@LogicStrikesAgain it was, but for all we know Insomniac is a Marvel slave from now on.

Why not hand the franchise to smaller team, reducing the development costs and also the risk of failure?

Mascot platformers are a niche genre nowadays, but there's a market for it.

If you cut the costs and satisfy the niche, you have a smaller less risky source of income.

Not every game needs to be the next blockbuster.

I get it most of the devs that worked on sly likely aren’t still working for sucker punch. It would still be cool to see sucker punch make a new cartoony platformer.

"Personally, as much as we have a soft spot for these old franchises, we don’t buy this idea that Sony needs to keep every series it owns alive until the end of time. Part of the beauty of PlayStation is how it’s been able to reinvent itself with each subsequent generation."

Kind of funny you say this, because this has been a very safe generation in terms of new IP from Sony's first party (owned by Sony) studios. Not to say there has been nothing new, but this really feels like we're still in the PS4 generation.

And I get not every series can realistically go on forever, but it can't be too hard to at least revisit old series once in a while.

Well I think they should spin off that 10% into a sister studio to make a new Sly.

I agree that not all franchises should live on forever, and yet, we keep getting new Ratch and Clanks of diminishing returns.

@graymamba
The Sly Cooper games were pretty great and still hold up well today but yeah the inFamous games were also great. So much variety in the Sony back catalogue.

@RudeAnimat0r I agree with the rest of your message, but diminishing returns? Come on now, Ratchet & Clank: Rift apart was up there with some of the best of the series 🙀

You don’t have to spend 6 years and $200mil on it, just think of some creative ideas and poop one out. Step 3 : Profit

I’ve been gaming since the Magnavox Odyssey but I don’t get why some people get so stuck on franchises. I don’t have anything against sequels, remakes or even revisions (I bought 4 versions of SF2 on the SNES and Genesis back in the day) BUT I am fine with creators saying ‘I’ve done everything I want to do with this, now I want to move onto something else’.

Make another Infamous game then, I'd happily purchase it day one.

Reinvent itself with every generation apart from the current one.

@LogicStrikesAgain I just disagree. Rift Apart was totally solid, but also the most Ratchet by numbers game since, well, the previous Ratchet.

I was also just totally let down about the rifts. Insomniac really leaned into how they were game changing and NEXT GEN and then they were mostly just bonus levels that loaded seamlessly.

Again, it's not a bad game, but I haven't been blown away by a Ratchet game since Tools of Destruction.

So...it's safe to say that Sly Cooper is dead and buried. RIP 🙏

Beside R&C and Astro Bot, Sony also still keep plenty of their platformers like Ape Escape, Jumping Flash, Puppeteer, J&D, Knack, Tearaway, etc inside their coffins. RIP for them too 🙏

But yeah, it's true that not every series can continue for decades. I respect devs decisions who wants to moved on from their comfort zone and feel the need to create new IP.

That could mean anything, people do a lot they don't want to. Nintendo gave us Another Code remake that's outsourced, 1 Sony type format for it, not EVERY IP. Used to be a point n click, now 3rd person format.

If Insomniac could do Song of the Deep with Spyro sized staff or Obsidian for Pentiment. Or audience/company mentality/quality expectations or sales limit then yeah that's why things are limiting.

Does that mean many enjoyed the series to work on, know IP, or are most a bunch of realism/other media types who should shut up/suck it up & that's why we have boring games these days. Meaning many of the staff are really boring people.

Good to get a job for, but boring to talk to & don't have an imagination for it but do other things (not a bad thing). If they are realism heads then they are the most boring people on the planet & I won't take ideas from them. I'd not put them at leadership/take ideas from them.

If Sucker Punch can't/won't that's fine. Thing is Sony wants large sales, so even a small studio it 'can't' be a small project which annoys me.

Nintendo can have Tetris battle royales like 99 and people are ok with it. Sony does something it has to be large scale and I'm like come on. I don't care about scale I care about IP use and gameplay not big scale nonsense I will likely less engage with.

Even Ubisoft went lets put Prince of Persia/sports games or others out there as ideas. Regardless of formula/trends. Even Mario Rabbids/Red Steel I enjoyed. Without those besides Rayman I wouldn't have a care at all. Seeing Last of Us 2/GOW R & Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei have roguelike or MP or whatever were 'something' but still pretty safe trend worthy for the types of experiments they were.

But Tsushima/Yotei doing MP that way makes more sense then live service misses in bad ways to approach Destruction Allstars (wrong audience as they never played that genre) or any other copy paste angles.

But if other studios are busy that's also fine. But I mean, if we can't get Sly, why can't we have OTHER Astro type IPs? Oh because PS audience won't buy them, they grew up/new/aren't that audience at all.

There is a reason many of us go to Nintendo, not because child friendly IPs but gameplay first. Not all of Nintendo ideas are GOOD, but good enough while Sony's gimmicks/cinematic IPs are too much opposites/nothing really happens anymore. Too many people making mixed decisions that don't work.

Sure I get sad when we get no Project Hammer/Retro Studios ideas & just DK/Metroid instead & rest barely get anywhere compared to Rare, but I mean at least what is there is solid enough variety of genres, IPs, worlds, gameplay ideas& more, sure some audience consideration made me dip off Nintendo& Switch 1/2 are pretty boring gimmicks wise but at least I have 1st/3rd party IP reasons I want to then PS4/5 1st party let alone boring 3rd parties besides VERY RARE Indies then the boring Indies/AA/AAA 3rdr parties regardless of region.

As much as Yotei's ideas are cool it's also a game I won't play, I'll praise it's ideas, but it's boring generic cinematic angle & I also don't care for older era Japanese settings, too many.

I don't like Sly either as I found 2&3 rather boring open worlds gameplay wise/how they handled missions but even still. It had more personality despite that, it's cartoony angle/tone/characters & world are excellent I just found the gameplay boring.

But I respect what efforts Sucker Punch put into making games.

Just let another studio make it. Sony has a ton of dead IP that can easily been given to another studio to revive, probably be a cheap development cost ast well.

@Carnage I play any IP as long as it's gameplay, problem is people get attached to these worlds, too emotional/attached, or are playing what they were used to, so they get attached to them. Or the vibe of them or whatever. I probably go too structural/behind the scenes to care. Movesets/gameplay matter no matter the character human, animal, alien, whatever. How they play is key for me. Not for others.

I'm surprised Ratchet Crack in Time slightly changed things & praise by fans (rare to happen so studios back track) and Insomniac like Resistance 2, Spiderman 2018 (after Sunset Overdrive's ideas that bent the open world formula a bit) or Ratchet All 4 One are very trend/safe and made me mad. Sigh some studios staff borrowing/publisher demands then ideas genuinely.

Even Nintendo regardless of not caring about my not caring about the Mario series, I mean they can make as many Mario characters have their own games, spin offs, all different genres or movesets, besides their other IPs and their universes/ideas. It's just weird.

I have bought so many niche/popular platformers, shooters, racing, jumped to tactics/hack n slashes/visual novels as I hate the current direction of RPGs, action adventure, shooters, racing, platformers and went I'll retro ones, see the competition/ideas, or other genres and see what i can get into and it's been well worth it to expand or see what came before, how approachable, what trends were like, the good/bad of them, or the less heavily marketed but still good. Working out the factors, my preferences, others preferences, and so on, what made some IPs, what one offs were good, and so on, how close they got.

I can play any genre and go gameplay first I don't care about characters/themes/worlds anymore whether scifi, fantasy, westerners, noire, family friendly, edgy cartoony, whatever anymore, I don't limit myself to those I'll play literally anything, still be picky but in a different way, but people don't work that way.

There are those committed to a developer, an IP, a genre, a theme, a message, an artstyle, other IPs they got used to in their small bubble, or only popular IPs, or whatever high standards and not branch out as much 'too scary' or doesn't fit what they grew up with or other things. People like to limit themselves then put effort in, do research or broaden things.

I mean racing sucks due to esports or 'has to be realistic' or brand loyal/advertising hungry or using their wheels they paid 100s for, yet many of us older fans like things for gameplay ideas, progression that's more fun, or challenge like play we had with older games, not simulating things or being brand focused, but it varies per person it's just some audiences.

For financial if people aren't afford to sure, but if people limited themselves because their parents didn't buy it for them, that's their own stupidity of limiting things because they can't be bothered finding something to expand to or have it shoved in their face recommended to them or whatever other factors.

I hate as much nostalgic Indies I see but then I go oh right you have to do that sometimes as audiences are that dumb and need to be baited into them of a vibe/gameplay comfort food, while I'm busy ignoring many of them looking at those not doing that and actually trying things.

So I may critique them but for a reason is I see too many as a basis for devs (fair but can be annoying) or for nostalgia baiting audiences to buy them.

@nomither6 Product of their time really? To me they may be early open worlds 2 and 3, but even I find many games of the past less terrible and modern ones going oh we have to follow trends, RPG design, pad this out, fit a handful of quest categories/scenarios and it's good but put a lot of effort into the world to 'look good'.

If were talking graphics or modern era garbage padded gameplay progression then not even close. Many older open worlds or like SUnset Overdrive recontextualised to have twoer defence not outposts cough SPiderman 2018/many others fitting formuliac trends then other ideas. Yeah I'd rather play older open worlds instead of like with Infamous Second Son I enjoyed it's more compelling side missions in context. Same with Gravity Rush/Sunset Overdrive. I haven't enjoyed the other geenric less skill or generic tasks ones in other games. The worlds don't hide the boring gameplay. The style doesn't cover it for me. But does others.

I'm sorry but to me I've played games that are 'empty' but filled with excuses, so to me the empty feeling is because of how lacking they are in gameplay justification. To me modern is more empty then past games. Sure past ones didn't have as much stuff in them in some cases, but their justification or ideas made me more excited then the emptiness or repetitive basic movesets or padded out skill trees and other garbage of modern games I see through immediately their design and refuse to support any of their emptiness and formulaic garbage.

I've had more fun playing PS3 era shooters mechanics, then I have the boring PS4 era ones.

To me PS1 to 3 had more gameplay compelling ideas in any genre (I have branched out to tactics, VNs, hack n slashes too and played older/modern ones and found them not as bad, other genres/games are more bland of their directions). PS4/5 are more accessible and less skill based but more style and boring to me personally. So their themes/settings do not appeal to me at all.

Even Indies skill level or budget or not are just as empty and don't cover up things. Some have great ideas, others are nostalgic garbage, as a base sure, but some are copy paste/too inspired.

Whether in movesets, animations, level design ideas, gameplay, just blandness. To me walking around real world locations for reference or fictional ones but boring tasks/animations is not fun. Too grounded, not enough fun factor to them in modern era, audience consideration.

Even Splatoon 2 had a grapple and I was like oh this will be boring, but it's smart use of simplicity like Spyro 1 made me happy, others fill things in smart ways that don't feel empty or bland, not many do with how 'filled' they are of style but not substance.

Even Mario has more moveset compelling things and you don't even need half of them. While playing Pitfall PS2 I was like it's charm, moveset animations and upgrades made me enjoy it more then any other Metroidvania.

@Americansamurai1 "Sony has a ton of dead IP that can easily been given to another studio to revive"

I think searching for a good studio who can revive classic IP's without tainted the series reputation or make the fans angry is not an easy job. Sony can't just give their IP's to a studio without experiences or convincing track records.

And there's also how they gonna market the game. If they do low cost marketing just to save budget, the game could fail to attract people attention.

@PuppetMaster smaller budget mean lower sales expectations though. There's a ton of talented studios out there that have proven their worth looking at all these indie studios.

A shame to hear but if the studio's heart isn't in it then I'd rather they work on something else they are passionate for. But for the love of God can we at least get an Infamous 1&2 collection on PS5? I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

Bad take, that's why he's bald.

Agree with the comments that say let those 10% make a new game, Sly is not exactly something that requires 200 developers and a high budget to make.

It’s funny. I always thought Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter were top tier, while I thought Ratchet and Clank was good but not particularly great. I guess I was in the minority cause Ratchet and Clank is the only series that didn’t die lol.

That said, I did think Rift Apart was substantially better than the previous games.

@SuntannedDuck2 i wholeheartedly agree with you, i much prefer older games from ps2/ps3 myself & don’t really jive with the direction or gameplay philosophies games take these days - BUT i also think that what makes games like sly so special is that they’re irreplaceable experiences of an era that i just don’t think would work today. thieves in time sucked mainly because everything just felt off about it for example. nonetheless, im down for a remaster of the trilogy and have been wanting that for YEARS - but a new game? hell no.

i also want to add that sly cooper used to be my most favorite playstation ip and is still one of my most favorite franchises ever. i love sly cooper, but i just have a strong feeling id be disappointed in a new take or game about a series i hold close

@SuntannedDuck2 I see where you are coming from but I don’t have a problem with the fact the average gamer (or consumer of other forms of commercial art such as movies and books) doesn’t do a lot of research and just settles on what looks fun and familiar or maybe what their friends and social media favorites are enjoying rather than doing research to find less conventional/more obscure stuff they might enjoy. People should play what they enjoy and if they don’t have to look far or hard to find said enjoyment, good for them. That doesn’t make them stupid or lesser, it just means they have other life priorities.

That's not surprising, all the original devs are long gone. Have you seen the Team Photos over the years?

That’s a shame; it could probably be made with a smaller team. However, I wouldn’t want it made at the expense of the “Ghost of…” series.

It's easy to always assume the worst reasons behind the absence of a game series but sometimes the truth really is just that the creators moved on to new ideas and don't feel compelled to make a new installment.