Shepherd_Tallon

@somnambulance Agreed.
Just yesterday I removed Expedition 33 from my list.
I really want to play it, but I'll never have time because every month there's another game competing for my time or something else to read or a rulebook to analyse.

I know an older nerd in his 60s who assures me I just have to hold out for retirement. He says as far as hobbies are concerned it's like being a teenager during the summer again.
Sounds like bliss.

Didn't get in. Probably for the best. It's looking like a busy gaming weekend.

@somnambulance Had the same thought re the Marathon server slam. And Smyths just shipped my copy of Resident Evil too.

Who has the time to play all of these games???

@Mio_Nakashima Ah I miss the bargain bin. Good times 😌 I discovered Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins in the same bargain bin around 2009. I had never heard of either game before.
It was like finding treasure.

@Mio_Nakashima I think this is the way it's always been.
If 90million people buy a console, selling 12million copies of a game would be a massive success, but the majority of people are still playing something else or going through their backlog.

Not buying a full price game at launch is smart consumerism though. I need to get back to doing it that way. Nothing beats adding something to a wishlist and then being rewarded with a sale.

@marcoboyle Brutally accurate.
This is the exact experience I've had over the past few years.

Our team bloated to 330+ during and just after the pandemic.
After that we dropped very quickly to 60ish.

Trying to look after a team that size was rough, but seeing so many cut in a few months was traumatic. And it all happened because of pandemic era over-hiring.

I registered my interest for the beta anyway. Wouldn't mind giving it a go, but this weekend I can't see myself playing anything but Resident Evil for more than a few minutes.

@Titntin
"The modern phenomenon of fake outrage and organised attacks...."

Agreed with this whole comment.

We all hate when we see people lose their jobs (it's happened to most of us at one point or another).
I was stunned last week when I heard the news, but as more information has trickled out it seems this closure was tragically inevitable.

Double agree on your point about all of the cuts and closures announced since last week that nobody is batting an eyelid at 🤷

I think I still have the PS1 version in the back of a press somewhere. Never did get around to finishing it.

I'd love to go back to it, but I'm still trying to finish Nioh III before Resi gets here.

I was going to get a retro handheld or track down old copies of Advance Wars, then I found out Nintendo released Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp not that long ago.
So;

• Nioh III
• Helldivers II
• Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp
• And a lot of Crunchyroll

@Questionable_Duck I've read three articles and didn't see any of that mentioned. Thanks for that info!

@Ashkorsair It's already happening. The Phil Spencer news is already distracting people.

@datamonkey Agreed. I thought it made sense at the time too. I mean it did. It just worked out all wrong.

But yeah, hopefully that's the end of the closures.

@UltimateOtaku91 I was just saying something similar. It feels like it won't be long before X-Box loses it's identity as a platform.

Plus, they're really doubling down on the "MicroSoft Gaming" brand.

@datamonkey Ember Labs would be a solid buy though. If the next Kena game does well at least.
It's got K-Pop Demon Hunter vibes and Sony crave IP that sells.

That said, with Totoki in charge I don't see too many more casual acquisitions on the horizon. And there are other ways to own an IP I guess.

@Dan12836666 I reckon the only thing it will change is that in future studio closures won't be discussed outside of investor calls. They'll just fade away quietly so advertisements on social media etc can continue as normal for as long as possible without backlash.
And maybe Sony have realised since the acquisition spree that they've published more titles with external devs than in house, and they didn't need to go on that panic buy spree after all. (Although tbf they couldn't have known at the time that MS wouldn't buy up more of their partners, or that X-Box would spend too much money and have to turn publisher.)

I'm gutted that people will lose jobs over this. As I mentioned earlier I've been there and it sucks. (We were one of the gaming companies that grew disgustingly big during COVID, and then came down hard on the other side of it.)
But I don't expect anything else to change.
Mc Donald's fire people and close locations all the time, but people still eat Big Mac's.

@themightyant Exactly that. A damn shame.

@themightyant It's been the same for me. I was gutted last night and this morning, but since then I've caught up with myself and I'm trying to reason it out a bit more without really knowing what actually happened.

Also, someone just pointed out to me again that if Bloodborne 2 was announced next week or if Sony bought Kadokawa, the masses would move on from this story pretty quick.
I found it hard to argue.

@Jey887 I fully understand this.
A few years back I stopped engaging with most websites (even this one for a while, but things have improved here a lot) because of constantly bleak headlines and hostile comment sections.

This is also why I try to stay disengaged from stories about CEOs and the likes - Gaming is a fun hobby. I don't want to stress over whatever Phil Spencer or Hulst say.
I want the work day to end so I can log off and have fun.

@themightyant I see you here and on Eurogamer trying to singlehandedly hold back the flood of speculation.

We need a thousand more like you.

This is one of the many reasons why I deleted all social media, and specifically why I have my YouTube bookmarks set to open on my subscriptions.
I don't trust the YouTube home page to not spoil whatever I'm reading/playing/watching.

It's quickly become one of my favourite games of this generation. It seems to be far more accessible than the other two games too, but that might just be because I'm over-levelled.

I love the new ninja mode. At times I feel like I'm a character in Ninja Scroll.

@themightyant So damn true.

@themightyant I agree on all of these points. We'd been wondering a few of them out loud here too.

In a few years someone will be out of NDA and then we'll learn more, probably.

@themightyant I've been on a similar journey.
When you look at it from a sales numbers perspective it makes sense I guess (had to clench my teeth typing that), but on this occasion the fan in me is louder than the pragmatist.

I don't normally comment when a decision like this is made. I've been caught up in rampdowns and department closures in the past.
I always felt gutted, and that the people on the outside looking in would forget about it eventually anyway, so when they would try to pat me on the back or say "scumbags had no right to cut all of those people" or whatever I'd just block it out and get on with finding another job.

Additionally, big industry wide moves aside, I try to not get too familiar with the people behind the brands involved in my favourite hobbies. I don't care if it's Hulst, Totoki or someone else making the decisions, as a fan I don't care too much about what the people behind the scenes say as long as they bring me games.
I don't know what most of my favourite authors look like either. It preserves the illusion. Don't look behind the curtain, that kind of thing.

I don't know them. They don't manage any of the rugby or football teams that I follow so I don't care about their decisions.
I just want to play games.

And as long as the people at Bluepoint who want to stay at PlayStation are given that opportunity, then great. I'm sure plenty of them would do well at Nixxes.

I'm self aware enough too to know that when X-Box and Ubisoft were making cuts or closing studios, beyond lamenting that folks were losing jobs, I didn't think too much more of it.

But this particular case just generates so much speculation and without knowing what went on behind the curtain it's hard to not feel flabbergasted and genuinely gutted that a talented studio closed before it had a chance to really get going.

I was talking to another industry friend about this overnight.

Given that Media Molecule and Bend are still alive, the only way Bluepoint closing makes sense to me is if every single thing they pitched was garbage (unlikely), or, if this is a kind of brutal course correction under Totoki.
As far as I know he's a money guy, and he can't have been impressed by what is looking more and more like panic buying during the acquisition spree.

Or maybe they're positioning for a delayed PS6 launch, cutting overheads so they don't have to push prices up as much because of ram costs and shortages.

I don't even know what point I'm trying to make honestly.
I'm just speculating. Trying to make it make sense.

I don't know what to say. I'm somewhere between stunned and gutted.

Remember that one early patch for original Skyrim that resulted in dragons flying backwards?
Everyone loves Skyrim now, but at launch it was so broken. There was one murder questline that I could never finish because a critical NPC died in a dragon attack too.

Yet it's still a franchise that I go back to decade after decade... 🤷

@Ainu20 True. It would be a pretty big investment and they'd need guarantees of a potential market.
It's the kind of thing that will either grow organically if it attracts more devs or not at all I suppose.

I've been wondering why more external studios don't licence this engine.
I wonder if Sony reserves it as a tool only for titles they publish, or if the difficulties mentioned are keeping potential users at bay.

It could be a tidy revenue stream.

@clvr tbf to Sammy, I'm sure he'd welcome constructive criticism of the game and discussion re the points in the article, but criticism online is rarely constructive and some of the loudest people would rather pile on when they smell blood instead of having any kind of discussion.
That's the point he was making.

I'm still happy with what I'm hearing.
I have no problems hitting a wall or a difficulty spike if there's another route I can take.
Then come back 20 hours later and dance on the enemy that stumped me.

Expect me to find a combo that I like and happily spam it for 100s of hours.

It's a sign of the times, @get2sammyb.
I'm a big fan of new console hardware and tend to be a Day 1 buyer, but everything is expensive atm and if I can delay making a new hardware purchase for another year I'll be happy.

It also feels like we're about to see the best years of the PS5, so I'm in no rush to move on.

It does everything right by me.

I thought I'd be too burned out after the later stages of Nioh II to go back to the series, but I'm glad I tried that demo.
Loving every second of the game so far.

@Steeleye25
Agreed on these points. I can't praise the combat enough, and I feel like I've barely scaped the surface of it.

I didn't realise it was locked behind the campaign. I've been playing Nioh III a lot and haven't started this properly yet.

Personally I bought the game to play by myself so this doesn't bother me, and it definitely feels like a nod to games of yesteryear, but it does seem like an unnecessary design choice in 2026 I guess.

I'm sure they'll patch it.

I wonder why Sony didn't try harder to keep him on the team. 🤔

Helldivers II and Nioh III for me.
So glad I didn't stick to my notion of skipping Nioh. Best entry so far.

Still holding out hope for Alundra on premium. That and Vagrant Story are the last two games I need them to add.

Excellent news. I Absolumly loved this game... 😏

@Voltan This is the only way to start the movie for me. Have a squad of big name actors wiped out in the first 15 minutes.

I'd chuckle if he just turns out to be the officer on the ship who stands next to the map spouting random propaganda lines.

Helldivers II and Nioh III for me.
So much for not playing anything until Resident Evil gets here 🤷

I completely missed this when skimming the headlines earlier!
Very nice. I loved Relink. Some seriously fun boss fights in that game. Great for coop too.
Nice nice nice.

The art style is a nice change to mix things up. I couldn't believe it wasn't a cutscene when the gameplay started.

I'd prefer character classes rather than pre-designed heroes. Unless they get customisable gear, which I'd be happy enough with.
I love the Horizon world though so either way I'll definitely give it a go.

Letting us play the campaign solo is very appreciated.

@Stepan Yes! I was saying something similar to a friend not that long ago - The TV lights up the whole room.

@Czar_Khastik I bought myself a Sony Oled recently too.
You're aware going in that it's going to look better, and you've heard all about VRR etc, but when you actually load up a game on it and see it for yourself? Wow.
It's my favourite thing in my house atm (not counting the dogs and the cat of course...)

I had every intention of skipping this. I figured I was still burned out after Nioh and Nioh 2.

I started the demo at the weekend. It's very rare these days that when I wake up in the morning I immediately think of the game I just turned off 7 hours before, force myself to wake right up and bounce out of bed to get back into it.
And that was just the demo.

I spent the vast majority of the time playing as the ninja class. The combat feels far more fun than the last two games.
Samurai mode is still great too, but jumping around all nimbly bimbly as a ninja will never not be fun.

@Questionable_Duck That wouldn't surprise me unfortunately. I've heard nothing about it at all since the reveal, and it had a kind of MindsEye vibe about it.

@AdamNovice I was about to say, "There's a third party game on the way called MUDANG: Two Hearts where one of the main characters is a K-Pop..." Then I saw what you were doing. 😌

Helldivers and Mario Kart this weekend.
Not starting anything new really until Resident Evil comes.

(I say that with one eye on Nioh III, which I swore I wouldn't touch...)

Fantastic news.
Tried it on Steam Deck but it didn't run very well at the time, so I said I'd wait for a PS5 release.
What I played of it though was really fun. Going to spend a lot of hours in this game.