[quote name='poiuiu']You're right, I don't follow the industry and haven't for over a year. I essentially stopped when followings news became too much of a chore, gaming in general is headed in a different direction than I want it to, and most conversations relating to it invariably leads to pointless name-calling that goes nowhere. The most recent Keighley picture actually sums this up nicely.
Not gonna comment on Gamescon stuff since that's coming over eventually, but stuff like God Eater 2 and Valhalla Knights 3 (ha) sounds like support NamcoBandai had no choice to finish since they expected PSV to continue where PSP left off. Whether they'll continue to show support or not remains to be seen; this is especially the case when the PSV has only recently sold 1 million in its home territory. (japan and na sales is pretty much the only aspect of gaming I still follow). And Valhalla Knights is not a series to write home about, regardless of which system it comes out in.
And while it's technically support, don't give me drek like Muramasa. It wasn't good on Wii, it won't be any different on PSV.
E3 may not be relevant to gamers anymore, but it's still the biggest show gaming centric gathering featured in North America, and it's where Sony shows off stuff which gets reported to the casual customer, ie the people that keep the industry afloat, ie the people Sony needs to sell to. Sony already has their mid to biggest fans in the bag, they need to convince the general (smart phone owning) populous that the PSV is worth buying. And since I don't know Sony's habit of public relations (like most general consumers), I can only rely on E3.
I'd argue against GG no longer an A team to Sony (they were with KZ2), but considering their releases since KZ2, they're either incompetent or they were significantly downsized. If they were an A team, they'd have multiple teams in their wing and would have more titles in development at the same time. And neither do the sales numbers of their games seem to give the belief that they can remain a single large team (ie Polyphony).
Also Liverpool studio is gone; they're dead. Psygnosis and I go way back. Zipper is dead too. And considering Sony cutting back on internal development studios, I wouldn't be surprised Evolution will be next; their last few games bombed, even when they were bundled. And they're not one of Sony's A teams; nowhere close.
And I'm not gonna comment on Japan studio/s since they're all a clusterfcuk and have been the primadonnas of this generation.
Have you seen Declassified yet? It looks horrible AND it doesn't run at 60fps. The Wii's excuse for being this is its the effing Wii; what's PSV's excuse?. And it's not even a port down of the mainline games like what Treyarch does with the Wii versions of current gen CoD games either. It's telling that Treyarch, Activision's development sweatshop, can't be arsed to port Blackops 2 to PSV (a system made for cross system developement) when they managed to scrounged up a bunch of guys to port CoD 3, 5, 4, 7 to the Wii. I'm honestly surprised they're not porting BLOP2 to the Wii, or at least port Declassified; fit right at home.
smug)
And really, have you seen Nihilistic's development history? If you have, look again.
But in the end, what I want from the PSV is support beyond a handful of years (especially at its price). And so far, it doesn't not too promising. I'd
love to be wrong, however.[/QUOTE]
At least I had a disclaimer. =b Why do you speak so authoritatively, after admitting you don't follow the industry? >.<
The Gamescom stuff is the stuff for Western gamers, so ignoring those and looking at the Japanese-focused titles doesn't make much sense, IMO. And those might be the games to move units in Japan, because, to be honest, I don't know the Japanese market all that well. I know that if they had Monster Hunter, they'd sell exponentially more Vitas... I'd argue Muramasa is one of the best Wii games, period. And being a third party Wii game, it didn't sell all that well, so gamers get another chance to experience that beauty (and it will be hella beautiful on that OLED screen).
I disagree. The Vita isn't meant to compete with smartphones. It's not for that audience. The Vita is for gamers. As far as Sony's statements go, they seem mostly satisfied with the Vita's performance, sales-wise. It's the gaming press that tells us that the Vita is doomed. (Now, my opinion is that Sony should EXPAND that market, but clearly they're content with the core, based on all statements and marketing efforts, ie. PS: All-Stars ads).
Well, Guerrilla is reportedly working on 3 games right now, Killzone 4, Killzone Mercenary and something supposedly next-gen. Just a lack of knowledge there.
You weren't talking about live or dead studios at the time, you were talking about "A" studios. And prior to closing those up, those were indeed A studios, I'd say. Based on quality, anyway. The MotorStorm franchise does alright, and the quality in the games is definitely there, so I'd call Evolution an A studio. Perhaps you disagree, but I think the point is still valid, Sony is investing in the platform, they're putting respectable talent on Vita titles (and you did skip over Tearaway; which is an original IP, by Media Molecule, definitely an A studio).
Japan Studio in-house development hasn't been all that great, I'd agree, they haven't had anything good since SotC, except: Gravity Rush, which is the first Sony original IP on the platform, and was met with critical success. They've had one game in development hell, The Last Guardian, but they've still had a steady stream of games otherwise (mostly developed with other studios, like Pyramid and Level-5).
And, I'm not a COD hater, I buy it every year, but I have to admit, Declassified looks much like COD. Visuals are a little lacking, true, but the gameplay looks about the same. Just missing some spectacle, and if they add that in, they'll be fine. I'm not sure they will, after Burning Skies, but that's the one big difference right now. (And I'm not all that startled at the lack of 60fps, it's new hardware, they don't know how to develop for it. On the other hand, I don't care about 60fps, give me 30fps and a competent game instead.)
Nihilistic is dead, nStigate is born. =b And yes, I know their development history. Prior to the Sony published titles, I thought they'd made some alright stuff though. And they're not much getting an opportunity to succeed, I'd argue, rushed deadlines, MOVE hardware. Hope to see something original from them in the mobile space.
The proprietary format was most definitely an unwise and unneeded choice.
To this day that game does not get the recognition it deserves(I still want a sequel!).