Thu, Mar 01, 2012 | 16:43 GMT
Forward thinking: Sony’s risk with unique ideas pays off
This generation, Sony gambled on new ideas. Its latest risk, Journey, shows the strategy has paid big dividends for both publisher and developer. Johnny Cullen explains.
A lovely Journey
Developed by thatgamecompany, work started in 2009 after finishing Flower; announced in 2010.
Designed by Nicholas Clark and Bryan Singh.
Directed by Jenova Chen, Robin Hunicke produced.
Releases March 13 in the US, March 14 in Europe through PSN.
I’m trying to think of any first-party or even a third-party publisher that would balance out what Sony has accomplished this generation in bringing new ideas to the table typically not seen elsewhere.
The truth, however, is I can’t. This generation, it’s published some of the best experiences not found on any other platform.
Not only that, Sony has also given more support to independent studios with its Indie Pub Fund which has been used to develop PSN-only games like Okabu, Papo & Yo, Payday: The Heist and others. The firm also provided PlayStation Vita development kits to indie studios as an act of faith, and support such as this has been non-existant on Wii and XBL – particularly XBLIG.
Sony’s legacy in this department is exemplary leads with three glowing examples; one of which, out in two weeks, may just be its finest hour in this department.
Play, Create, Share
The first of these experiences Sony pushed for was LittleBigPlanet. Co-founded by a relatively unknown staff comprised of ex-Lionhead staff, Media Molecule’s greenlight pitch for LBP had a pretty hefty champion in then-SCE WWS boss Phil Harrison, with its unveil at GDC 2007 arguably one of the finest seen this generation.
LittleBigPlanet also showed a more open online infrastructure with PSN compared to the likes of XBL and WiiWare at the time. As well as creating levels that let the player’s imagination go wild, those levels would be shared throughout PSN to be played and rated by the community.
Since the release of LBP, more games have started appearing on XBL that feature the ethos of Play, Create, Share. One example is Trials HD, where you can create your own courses. Its sequel, Evolution, seems to be blowing the house down in comparison to HD. But before LBP and Trials, you’d be pretty hard pressed to find a game like them on Xbox Live.
Since LBP’s introduction, it’s now become one of Sony’s biggest mainstay series: seeing a main sequel on PS3 last January, a PSP version and an upcoming Vita version, plus a karting-based spin-off. In March 2010, following the success of the original game, Sony announced it acquired Media Molecule, and the firm is now starting to move away from the series.
The Play, Create, Genre Sony championed in the past has also given us ModNation Racers on PS3, PSP and VIta.
How far for love?
If LittleBigPlanet was something for all audiences, Heavy Rain was a completely different situation altogether. Sackboy skins for the Quantic Dream thriller’s four lead characters may have been released, but that was as flippant as the game would get.
If gamers harbored any apathy to mature stories in games, Heavy Rain dispelled such indifference at launch.
That aside, Heavy Rain showed Sony was open to new IPs, especially one with a mature story in an industry that isn’t just for kids and teens anymore. At least, that was what QD creative head David Cage said at the 2008 Games Convention in Leipzig during Sony’s press conference.
The main story centered around Ethan Mars, whose son had been kidnapped by a serial killer known as the Origami Killer. Three other playable characters in the game were also connected to the main plot in some form: FBI agent Norman Jaden, photographer Madison Paige and Scott Shelby.
It was an interactive story in the same vein as Quantic’s prior effort, Fahrenheit, which based on choices the player made, affected how the ending played out.
If gamers harbored any apathy to mature stories in games, Heavy Rain dispelled such indifference at launch. For a start, six months after it released in February 2010, Cage announced at GDC Europe it had hit 1.5 million in sales and launched at number one on the UK charts. It was popular to the extent that there was a shortage.
There may be no sequel inbound, but Quantic Dream is content enough with its relationship with Sony, that the firm will publish its next project – an announce of which has been expected for the past year or so. The studio is even set to debut new tech that’ll power the title at GDC next week.
Needless to say, Sony’s big gamble with Heavy Rain paid off.
Don’t stop believin’
Which brings us to Sony’s latest effort in this area.
Thatgamecompany, one of the more well known studios which has stuck with PSN route, released its PS3 launch title flOw in 2007 before releasing the incredible Flower in 2009 – my personal pick as downloadable game of the year.
Journey, however, is a completely different ball game. While flOw was about aquatic gameplay and Flower was about having a flower-based experience whilst revitalising the world around it, Journey is more of a pilgrimage. I’d give a theory on what said pilgrimage is, but I’d be ruining what is otherwise an amazing, classy experience that needs to be played to be seen.
What Journey is, however, is beautiful. It’s obvious, but it still needs stating: it’s gorgeous. From start to finish, its art design fits ridiculously well, and the latter parts – which were not shown in the multiplayer beta from last year – are utterly breathtaking. This may seen vague now, but when you play it, it’ll click.
Online also makes sense. Journey comes with a co-op component where you team up with an unknown on PSN throughout the game. You won’t know the username of that person – or any other people you’ve teamed up with, for that matter -until the end credits have rolled.
Continuing with the non-traditional online support, there’s no voice support, The only form of communication is the mere press of the circle button, which makes brilliant sense. Minimalist contact, but you’ll easily read signals like a call for help, and know to wait until you’ve caught up, or to go on ahead.
In short: I love Journey. A lot. It is, bar none, my game of the year, even though we’ve just entered March. What thatgamecompany’s created is nothing short of incredible. While flOw and Flower only scratched the surface, Journey finds the studio Jenova Chen and Kellie Santiago founded in 2006 breaking through as one of the best independent studios today, and one of the best in its class.
Chen has since told Push Square in an interview it’s looking at “a bigger audience” for its next project now its three-game deal with Sony has ended.
Yet, the undying support Sony’s shown for Journey and thatgamecompany, new IPs like Heavy Rain and independent studios, proves that such risk-taking for mature, new IP is needed in our industry – and it pays off with enough work.
Sony’s continuing journey will see thatgamecompany get off at the next stop to go elsewhere, but the road ahead is looking rather golden. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Journey launches on March 13 in the US and March 14 in Europe for $14.99.
82 comments
Older Comments
#51
Joe Musashi
02/03/12, 2:32 pm
@50 “..but then Live never goes ‘under maintance’ ”
Never? You sure about that?
JM
#52
Ireland Michael
02/03/12, 2:33 pm
@50 Child of Eden is an exceptionally rare exception in a mountainous sized rule.
As for the 360′s indie output, that’s getting others to do the hard work for you. It doesn’t help that 99% of the games on the Indie channel are garbage. Microsoft’s inept support of the service is also well documented.
And no, they didn’t pioneer anything. Sony has had software available for this sort of stuff available to people as far back as the earliest days of the PS1. It didn’t have the online infrastructure of the Xbox Live sevice to support it, obviously, but it “pioneered” nothing.
The Last Guardian is “borderline canned”? Seriously? Its just had a long development cycle. 5 years is not an exceptional lenght of time for developing a new game from scratch. I mean, its not optimal, but even cut-and-paste titles like Call of Duty take about two years to make.
Anyway, its one game. There are tonnes of other examples in this generation alone beside that game of Sony working on creative risks or heavily supporting third party developers developing such games – the PixelJunk games, LittleBigPlanet, Flower, Journey, etc.
Cue accusations of me being a Sony fanboy. I guess calling me an Xbot is so 2010.
#53
daytripper
02/03/12, 2:38 pm
you have been called worse than that michael
#54
Ireland Michael
02/03/12, 2:46 pm
@53 I don’t doubt it.
#55
Ge0force
02/03/12, 2:48 pm
I wouldn’t call Child of Eden an unsafe project, since it’s more or less a sequel of Q-entertainments succesful Rez. Also, Microsoft was in desperate need for good Kinect games for a non-casual audience.
But they pushed the game to an overpriced retail release so no one bought it. I did, but I regret it because the game is not that good imo. I find “marking” enemies instead of actually aiming rather boring in an on-rails game.
#56
Gekidami
02/03/12, 2:58 pm
What exactly does Child of Eden have to do with MS? Its a multiplat game both developed and published by third parties. Are we really calling timed exclusivity ‘a risk on MS’ behalf’?
#57
Da Man
02/03/12, 3:05 pm
#51 Yeah, compared to Sony never.
#52 You’re talking the most ignorant, naive nonsense in your usual hysterical, sensationalist manner. That uh, ‘sort of stuff’ was in comparison to XNA what Basic is to Code Libraries. Sony have had a chance to implement that ‘infrastructure’ a gazillion times, they chose to rush PS2 to the market and sell it on Gta instead.
XNA is free, comprehensive set of tools which literally anyone can use if they have an internet connection.
Alan Wake is no more ‘unsafe’ than that Heavy Rain which in turn is another Fahrenheit, which in turn is just a glorified point and click adventure made with the lowest common denominator in mind.
Now keep in mind that Sony have Gods of War, Killzones, Uncharteds, Resistances, GTs, and so and so forth. All that compared to one-two ‘quirky’ games. Sony just don’t have any Mario of their own, which is why their portfolio is pathetically spread in futile attempts to find that one.
There’re no tonnes, and pretty much all of those weren’t developed by Sony.
Last guardian has been mentioned since about oh.. well the start of this gen, and last I heard the lead dev left, and it’s making ‘slow progress’. By all means keep the faith.
Oh and Child of Eden a sequel, but glorified point and click adventures alongside level editors which were around since forever aren’t, that’s a good one.
#58
Da Man
02/03/12, 3:09 pm
#56 – Last I checked thatgamecompany were considering bringing their games to other platforms.
#59
TD_Monstrous69
02/03/12, 3:22 pm
I agree with the points that Johnny Cullen has made. I believe that Sony has done some of the most remarkable creative work this generation, and thatgamecompany’s titles are only proof of this (as well as Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet). I’m looking forward to what Sony’s got coming this year, as well as hearing on what they’re working on for the future. And now, let the internet rage commense.
#60
Joe Musashi
02/03/12, 3:22 pm
@57 – So this is not actually “Never”. Its a new definition of “never” with a special technicality that works when you compare it to a specific company in a specific context.
Glad we got that cleared up.
I do so like it when people meticulously take one company to task over every detail but then go out of their way to completely overlook pertinent details of another company and apply vague generalisms in their favour.
JM
#61
Da Man
02/03/12, 3:37 pm
#60 Have you ever heard the word ‘figurative’ ? I really don’t think you cleared up anything.
#62
Joe Musashi
02/03/12, 3:43 pm
Oh look. Semantics. How cute.
JM
#63
OrbitMonkey
02/03/12, 3:48 pm
Ah, I love it when a comments thread descends into semantics and sophistry
Off on a tangent here, but I think you could argue that the Kinnect was quite a risky move (arf) on MS’s part.
#64
Gekidami
02/03/12, 4:04 pm
@58
You didnt answer my question; What does Child of Eden have to do with MS?
Oh and Sony actually financed and published ThatGameCompany’s games, so you fail, hard, as always.
#65
Mike
02/03/12, 4:06 pm
Sony Sony Sony Sony Sony Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft.
#66
Da Man
02/03/12, 4:23 pm
It wasn’t semantics, rather you’ve missed my point.
#64 I did. I just never put it in the same sense you do. It has just as much to do with MS as tgc with Sony. It’s a third party game. MS have both offered the Kinect to do so and greenlighted it. As I said, they hardly aren’t keen on indies, if anythinng they only encourage them.
If Sony really financed them so much, and made this game a reality like you keep on suggesting then they would have some kind of contract that would limit tgc from making it multiplatform. Which they don’t.
What ‘s that, Gekidami, we’re angry? I don’t really intend to diss Sony btw, just saying. I do think they’ve produced one of the most important games ever, Ico, a game which was one of the defining titles last gen.
#67
DrDamn
02/03/12, 4:30 pm
@66
I think they did didn’t they? TGC were signed up to a 3 game deal (Flow, Flower, Journey). They are now free to go multiplatform which they have hinted at.
@65
NintendoNintendoNintendoSEGACommodoreCommodoreAtari
#68
Joe Musashi
02/03/12, 4:31 pm
The only point you made was how you like to use words like “Never” and “canned” to assert fabrications as fact. Once you made that point perfectly clear any other points you had magically evaporated.
But feel free to continue bluffing and posturing as if you made some fantastically airtight counterpoint. It may draw another pithy quote from my favourite commentator
JM
#69
Gadzooks!
02/03/12, 4:34 pm
OricOricAcornTRS
#70
DrDamn
02/03/12, 4:35 pm
@69
BallandCupStickandHoop
#71
Gadzooks!
02/03/12, 4:36 pm
#68
You sure use a lot of words to say fuck all.
#72
Da Man
02/03/12, 4:41 pm
“Joe Musashi”, do look up ‘figure of speech’.
Stating that compared to constant ‘maintances’ of Sony Offline Entertainment , Live practically never goes down (seriously, it does once a year?) isn’t a ‘fabrication’ of any sorts. It’s a reasonable notion.
Why do you keep coming back
?
#73
Joe Musashi
02/03/12, 4:41 pm
@71 Whereas your contributions have been fantastically informative and erudite.
Don’t mind me. I’m being ‘objective’.
@72 “Never” isn’t a figure of speech. It’s a word with a text-book definition understood and used by millions of people everyday. You weren’t using it as a figure of speech until you got called up on you big bold-sounding claims.
You kids. Big and bold and brash until you get rumbled. Then it’s all excuses and name-calling!
JM
#74
DrDamn
02/03/12, 4:43 pm
@66
“If Sony really financed them so much, and made this game a reality like you keep on suggesting then they would have some kind of contract that would limit tgc from making it multiplatform. Which they don’t.”
http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2012/02/interview_thatgamecompany_journey?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Quote: “Thatgamecompany had a three game contract with Sony, so the past three games had to be Sony exclusive. Right now we are very much exploring ways to bring our games to a bigger audience, beyond just PlayStation. We are still in the process of negotiating, but I hope that we can announce it [soon]. But right now it’s still in the process.”
In fairness you probably read the EG news post on this which was a poor regurgitation and implied the previous games could come to other consoles.
#75
ManuOtaku
02/03/12, 4:43 pm
All this jibber jabber,and no one mentioned that sony let pass Demon Souls 8D.
#76
DrDamn
02/03/12, 4:46 pm
@75
That was SCEE – as a collective they couldn’t find their own arses. SCEJ was reasonably involved with the development of Demon’s Souls.
#77
Gadzooks!
02/03/12, 4:47 pm
Less ‘objective’, more ‘pseudo-intellectual pedant with nothing of worth to say’.
Wink.
#78
Joe Musashi
02/03/12, 4:51 pm
@77 Oh my, given how much you call others ‘hypocrite’ you really seem to have no appreciation of the word.
Gadzooks, you’re priceless. You go around lashing out, name-calling, claiming how objectivity isn’t present but only care to mention one company in such context. You’re so utterly oblivious to your own behaviour that it’s stupendously compelling.
Do you write your own material?
JM
#79
Da Man
02/03/12, 4:56 pm
No I was, it has always been intended as in comparison. I really don’t see how you still have issues figuring it out.. What if I get a headache once in a year, and you once in a week. Then that would make me pretty much perfectly healthy in regards to headaches in comparison.
You.. “Joe Musashi”
You see things that aren’t there. Again. And again.
#74 Indeed, thanks for clearing that up then. I recall an article from this website, that’s what I ‘ve read.
#80
Gekidami
02/03/12, 4:59 pm
@66
Journey publisher: Sony.
Child of Eden publisher: Ubisoft.
TGC had a contract to make 3 games for Sony, and you can bet it wasnt out of the goodness of their hearts. Child of Eden on the other hand was a multiplat game with only about 3 months between the release on both platforms.
How exactly do you find these comparable? How is it even an example of ‘risk’ on MS’ behalf? Nah, it doesnt hold up.
#81
fearmonkey
02/03/12, 6:01 pm
All this about Child of Eden and MS?
No one yet mentioned, at least that in the comments I read, that MS was offered to show Child of Eden for their Kinect demo at E3 the year of the Kinect launch.
They declined…… and showed very underwhelming videos which they got flack for, but was saved a bit thanks to Ubisoft’s Eden demo at their own conference and on the E3 floor that showed more of what gamers wanted out of the Kinect.
So MS declined to actually show the demo of the game so they could show their Wii-clone games, and they are just as forward thinking?
#82
Ireland Michael
02/03/12, 9:54 pm
@81 Becauae clearly one game at E3 (that wasn’t even published by Microsoft) is comparable to an entire mountain of creative and unique first party developed and third party published titles spanning 18 years and 5 different pieces of hardware.
Clearly.
At least in Da Man’s mind, anyway.
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