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Sony's PlayStation leadership is changing again
With the PlayStation 5 due next year, PlayStation is no doubt keen to get its ducks in a row. It's seen a number of managerial changes recently, and has now announced two new moves. Hermen Hulst, formerly of studio Guerilla, is now head of worldwide studios, tasked with making sure the PS5 has plenty of first-party blockbuster games on its roster. PlayStation veteran Shuhei Yoshida, meanwhile, takes the helm of a new initiative to encourage more indies to the platform. Hulst co-founded Amsterdam-based Guerilla, best known for the Killzone franchise and Horizon Zero Dawn. Sony acquired Guerilla back in 2005, and since then Hulst has been responsible for driving a number of innovations, including proprietary game engine Decima which has been used to produce a number of titles, among them the upcoming Death Standing. Meanwhile, Yoshida's new role will see him leading a new company initiative designed to support independent developers -- exactly what that looks like isn't clear yet, but Yoshida is well-known in the business for his love of indie games, and Sony could certainly use a boost in this area. Once a staunch backer of independent developers the company's foothold in this market has weakened in recent years -- Yoshida's new position could turn this around.
Ovosonico partners with Sony Worldwide Studios Europe
Ovosonico, the development studio founded by Shadows of the Damned director Massimo Guarini, has signed up with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Europe to work together on a new intellectual property. Ovosonico is the first studio in Italy to partner with SCE WWSE – "and due to the growing talent in this country; we believe the first of many," noted senior vice president Michael Denny.In the absence of information about Ovosonico's first game, allow us to use this space to tell you to go play Shadows of the Damned.
Sony's 'Cross Buy' promo headed to North America and Europe, Japan undecided
Sony's "Cross Buy" promotion isn't just for Europe – SCE president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida took to Twitter to clarify that the PlayStation 3/Vita promo is also headed to the United States. Japan, however, isn't so lucky. At least not yet. " PS Vita-PS3 Cross Buy price promo is coming to both Europe and North America. My quote by Famitsu was meant as 'not decided for Japan yet,'" Yoshida said. A piece from Famitsu was picked up yesterday (via Andriasang) that was misunderstood to mean the promo is exclusive to Europe.PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale was revealed during Gamescom 2012 to be the first retail game from Sony launching with the Cross Buy promo – if you buy either version of the game, you get the other version for free. Sound Shapes and Motorstorm RC already employ the promo, albeit on PSN. A variety of other upcoming first-party Sony games also support the promotion. Incidentally, we also support the promotion, because it's super boss.
Sony's Rohde explains The Last Guardian's E3 absence: 'It just wasn't appropriate for us to give an update'
Sony's E3 2012 press conference was full of surprises. For one, Quantic Dream's new game was unveiled – Beyond – Two Souls. Just like that!More surprising, however, was a game that didn't make an appearance: The Last Guardian. Since being teased in a January 2008 Sony Japan job listing with a single image, the Team Ico-developed game has only been shown by Sony a handful of times. Moreover, the only news we've heard recently on the long in-development project has been worrisome – the game's creative lead, Fumito Ueda, ended his employment at Sony and began working on the game as a contractor. And then in February, Sony revealed that the company's Santa Monica studio was assisting in the development process.SCEA senior VP of product development and worldwide studios, Scott Rohde, assured me in an interview this week that the game's absence from Sony's presser isn't something gamers should be concerned with. "It just wasn't appropriate for us to give an update. That's just how it worked out," Rohde said. Rather than seeing it as a potential sign that the four-plus year project is stagnating, Rohde said that it's absence was a question of time limitations during the press conference and Sony's approach to internal development. "Almost more than any game that Worldwide Studios develops, it's all about the emotion and the experience that's crafted in what that team can deliver. And there's a vision that must be upheld. And until it can be upheld, it's not gonna ship," he said.
Sony Europe cancels games across several UK studios
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has informed staff at London Studio, Studio Liverpool, and Evolution Studios that several of their projects will be "streamlined or closed" to focus development on higher-priority first party offerings. In a statement to GamesIndustry, the publisher explained, "with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resources should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion." Sony did not reveal the identities of these projects, or whether their cancellation would result in layoffs -- the statement only mentioned, "This decision will have no impact on the role that our first party studios will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms." We've contacted Sony to try and find out if any positions had been cut thanks to the reallocation.
