Something’s rotten in the land of PlayStation

The PlayStation 5 is selling very well even despite the ongoing global insanity. That’s certainly something that’s difficult to deny. Weekly sales regularly top a quarter million units, with demand remaining strong both at retail and via scalpers. Yet there’s a small but growing group of fans who feel that Sony Interactive Entertainment is losing touch with both customers and developers. Something which could do serious damage to the brand over the long haul.

The latest controversy, and there have been many lately, comes from the company’s plans to remake The Last of Us. The critically acclaimed game had originally launched on the PS3 towards the end of that console’s life. However, it would later go on to receive a remaster for the PlayStation 4. Fans have questioned the need to do a complete remake given that the game isn’t even a decade old at this point, and has no real issues in terms of its visuals or mechanics. It’s basically perfect as is. Not to mention that the remaster runs perfectly fine on the PS5. Many have speculated that Sony is only doing this to boost interest in their upcoming Last of US television series on HBO Max.

Now, normally something like this would just be a blip on the gaming news radar. However, it’s Sony’s treatment of their smaller studios that’s raising some serious eyebrows.

According to reports from Bloomberg, Michael Mumbauer, founder of Visual Arts Service Group, a small development team that typically assisted with other projects, had pitched an idea to remake the first Uncharted game. After this was rejected, Sony settled on remaking The Last of Us. Mumbauer assembled a 30 person team to tackle the project, but kept running into issues as Sony attempted to keep the existence of the game silent. The company also refused to provide the developers any additional budget. The head of PlayStation Studios, Herman Hulst, allegedly deemed the project too expensive and moved the team to support development on The Last of Us: Part II.

Once that game was completed, it’s claimed that PlayStation Studios made several moves that effectively made The Last of Us remake a Naughty Dog project. The team at Visual Arts Service Group were demoralized by the decision, and have largely disbanded, with many including Mumbauer leaving the company entirely.

The games industry is pretty cutthroat, and moves like this aren’t unusual. However, the number of these moves happening within Sony’s internal first party studios, in such a short span of time, certainly is.

For instance, Bend Studios, developers of cult hit zombie game Days Gone, had their proposal for a sequel rejected despite the game being a commercial success. Sony also went through a major restructuring at Japan Studio, reorganizing or outright disbanding Team Ico, Team Siren, and Sugar & Rockets. Developers responsible for some of PlayStation’s most critically acclaimed titles. Reports indicate that the company’s Japanese division is hemorrhaging talent, with the latest exodus taking place on April 1st.

Rather than work on smaller and more niche titles, Sony has said they would rather focus their efforts into making high profile blockbuster releases like God of War, Horizon, and The Last of Us. It’s clear that there’s no longer room for smaller studios within SIE’s umbrella to get their projects green lit.

Bloomberg, however, noted that emphasizing big hits can be counterproductive. Smaller studios can be a wellspring of creativity, which can eventually lead to bigger things down the road. Consider Minecraft, which started as an indie game and went on to spawn a billion dollar franchise. Relying on big tent pole releases also makes the company extremely vulnerable to financial shocks should one of those games bomb. Something which Hollywood is currently learning the hard way. As is BioWare. Without a diversified library, there’s no buffer should something fail.

Perhaps the bigger issue for Sony though is losing all their talent. Talent which other studios would be more than happy to snatch up. While the PlayStation 5 is currently the top selling 9th generation console, they’re no longer in a position where they have absolute domination of the video game market. The Xbox Series X/S has been nipping at their heels, especially in the contentious North American market. The one market where Sony is pooling all those resources. Meanwhile the Nintendo Switch continues to absolutely smash weekly sales charts across all major regions. Both of which would be more than happy to leverage the development teams that Sony is unceremoniously kicking to the curb.

The moves have also left a sour note for PlayStation fans, who feel the brand is losing its identity. In the early days, Sony was very supportive of its small studios, which gave its platforms a wide variety of niche titles beyond just the usual big budget cookie-cutter releases. However, that seemed to have stopped with the release of the PlayStation 4. Now a small but growing number of fans are talking about ditching the platform form greener, or redder, pastures.

While the news doesn’t seem to be impacting sales as of yet, it’s going to be interesting to see how this impacts the PS5 into the future.