Sony’s PlayStation has its fair share of big name studios. One example is Naughty Dog, which is responsible for the Uncharted and The Last of Us series, both immensely successful. But Bloomberg reported that the company is focusing more and more of its resources to these studios and their successful IPs. And this comes at the cost of possibly sidelining the smaller studios, as well as newer, niche or experimental titles.
The fairly lengthy report talks mainly about Sony’s recent preference for the larger PlayStation studios. It mentions a small team known as the Visual Arts Service Group, and the way its plans to remake the first Uncharted game from 2007 was shot down.
The VASG would then be working on a remake of The Last of Us from 2013. Down the line, PlayStation decided that the studio will get help from Naughty Dog itself, the studio that created the franchise. But by the end of 2020, the roles were reversed, with Naughty Dog taking over the project and VASG doing support.
Thanks to everyone who attended the podcast with Jaffe. I wish I could have been more forthright with some questions. Just remember @jasonschreier is a journalist who takes his craft seriously. And he has the luxury of being able to be more honest than I’m allowed. https://t.co/MCbvItFwvs
— Jeff Ross (@JakeRocket) April 11, 2021
And then there’s the situation with Sony Bend, the studio behind Days Gone. Released in 2019, the game was profitable, but its critical reception was not spotless, to say the least. So when a sequel was pitched, the idea was shot down. This point was sort of supported by the director of Days Gone, Jeff Ross, even if rather ambiguously.
The restructuring of the PlayStation Japan Studio does serve as evidence that supports the Bloomberg report. Which ultimately is still a strange decision to make considering the origins of the Uncharted series.
(Source: Bloomberg)
