Tue, Apr 07, 2009 | 10:26 BST
Sony: Our first-party dev is as big as Microsoft and Nintendo’s combined
SCEA hardware marketing head John Koller has claimed that Sony’s first-party development division is as big as that employed by Nintendo and Microsoft. In total.
“Our development studios – the Worldwide Studios team – is as large as Microsoft and Nintendo’s combined,” he said, talking at GDC.
Koller said that Sony’s first-party roster for the coming years would feature a mix of fresh ideas and surefire successes.
“We have a tremendously creative group, and a line-up for the next few years that will bring a lot of new IP to the market, but will also being a lot of [tried and tested] franchises and new iterations to the PS3 in particular, but also PSP,” the exec added.
Koller didn’t give a figure on how many people were employed in Sony’s Worldwide Studio division.
Both PS3 and PSP’s first-party slate for 2009 is looking nice and healthy, with games like God of War III, Heavy Rain and inFamous already hoving into view for PS3, and a new MotorStorm, a LittleBigPlanet SKU and more on the way for PSP.
25 comments
#1
G1GAHURTZ
07/04/09, 10:24 am
Just think…
It would have been EVEN BIGGER if the didn’t just lay off all those staff!!
#2
Shatner
07/04/09, 10:33 am
Doesn’t matter. MS would just shut down another Ensemble or something!
#3
Herlock
07/04/09, 10:34 am
The reason why i love Sony, it’s the best and the biggest Studio in video game industry, but in Europe we like to have your Japan game TOO, all og them like WKS, Demon’s Souls, Afrika etc…and push Sega for Kenzan et Yakuza III dammit!
#4
Cort
07/04/09, 10:41 am
G1GA, I’m pretty sure SCE escaped Sir Howard’s scythe.
#5
Doomsayer
07/04/09, 10:46 am
My Dick is bigger than yours…. gotta love sony
#6
Shatner
07/04/09, 10:49 am
You need to read some statements from Aaron Greenberg, Chris Lewis and David Yarnton.
See HoC? Balance
#7
G1GAHURTZ
07/04/09, 10:53 am
/searches net.
Seems like you’re right Cort, but it’s strange that they would can The Getaway and Eight Days, then lay off 8000 staff and that none of those would be from SCEE…
I must have just assumed that they were.
#8
Gekidami
07/04/09, 11:05 am
Sony have 3 more first party studios then both MS and Nintendo combined to be exact.
#9
Patrick Garratt
07/04/09, 11:06 am
I don’t think it was staff cut problems that got The Getaway and Eight Days canned. More that they weren’t the right “sort” of game.
#10
G1GAHURTZ
07/04/09, 11:12 am
Yeah, but where did all of the staff go?
I suppose it’s commendable to can two projects, then move everyone who was working on them to other projects, but I’m thinking that you’ll probably end up with too many staff for your needs.
I know that they shared staff across projects at SCEE, but not everyone, surely…?
#11
Gekidami
07/04/09, 11:13 am
They just canned the games, not the entire studios…
#12
G1GAHURTZ
07/04/09, 11:24 am
So the Lead Designer that was working on Eight Days… Where did he go?
What do you do with a guy on £70k pa who no longer has a game to develop?
The Lead Artist, the Senior Producer and the entire coding team that was working on The Getaway… Where did they all go?
Did they get assigned to a game that already had all of these positions filled?
I’m sure that they’re not just sitting around twiddling their thumbs and getting paid for it.
Oooooo…. It’s a mystery…
#13
Herlock
07/04/09, 11:39 am
They all work on Eye Pet.
#14
Cort
07/04/09, 11:43 am
They could have started a new IP or been seconded to another Sony studio. We all know about the cross-fertilisation between SCE’s developers.
#15
Wurider
07/04/09, 12:37 pm
What’s the point when these studios don’t put out shit worth buying!!! I mean what is there to brag about really!! MLB:The show is all they have.
#16
Blerk
07/04/09, 12:40 pm
There was that shooty thing. Killsomethingorother.
#17
Truk
07/04/09, 1:08 pm
This thread makes me chuckle. Unsurprisingly, GHz is leading the laughs.
#18
Michael O'Connor
07/04/09, 1:11 pm
“There was that shooty thing. Killsomethingorother.”
And that LittleBigwhatchacallit game.
Motorsomethingorother isn’t that bad either.
Resistance is a bit crap though, unfortunately.
#19
Prof Power Glove
07/04/09, 1:21 pm
They don’t all work on Eye-pet. Oh the stories I could tell if I dared..
Most of the people from Eight Days/Getaway were initially redistributed onto other projects (Home etc) but then a healthy bunch were then made redundant or left. Actually, wait, that happened before either project was actually canned properly.
Both were huge projects with big budgets and Sony didn’t want to take a risk on them. Now what do Sony London do? You see, our beloved PS3 console actually entirely depends upon 1st party software in the West while Microsoft/Nintendo have 3rd party developers bringing out decent titles too.
#20
G1GAHURTZ
07/04/09, 2:13 pm
The truth at last!
Thanks Professor.
#21
spanishdudewii
07/04/09, 7:22 pm
Sony’s parcing words. Nintendo is the only videogame publisher to internally develop both hardware and software. Sony and Microsoft have first-party studios, yes, but not in the same way Nintendo does. They each have wholly-owned development houses that answer directly to Sony and Microsoft, but their not interal teams working within their headquarters.
Does Sony own several large first-party studio’s that outnumber the 1,500 or so developers inside Nintendo’s teams? Probably. But Sony’s a much larger company than Nintendo.
#22
SERAPHEMZ
07/04/09, 7:44 pm
Nintendo produces mostly shit.. so maybe they need to go out to get some good stuff.
How many f’n Mario,Wario games can you make really???
#23
Cort
07/04/09, 8:51 pm
“You see, our beloved PS3 console actually entirely depends upon 1st party software in the West…>”
Entirely? What silly rubbish.
#24
judono
08/04/09, 1:51 am
i’ll start beleiving that as soon as see more than five first party titles people actualy want to play a year.
#25
Cort
08/04/09, 2:53 am
judono, now that’s even more silly, surely?
Even if you think that – in complete isolation – the first party line up isn’t game-changing (no pun intended), when compared to its competitors (which is the whole point of the quote and the story) Sony’s existing first-party library is strong and it has the current industry-leading roster for 2009/10.
Or do you think that Microsoft Game Studios and Nintendo have more than five first-party titles a year which everyone wants to play? (Genuine question.)