E3 Sony Press Conference Coverage

Next up on the list at E3 is Sony. Right out of the gate Sony does a great job at really dropping a bomb on the world with the announcement the makers of Heavy Rain are developing a new title. Not much is known about this title other than the trailer released at E3, but with Quantic Dream making this project it will sure to be nothing other than a smash hit. With Beyond: Two Souls you will play as Jodie Holmes and go through points in her life spanning 15yrs. But there is something very special about Jodie; she is surrounded by an invisible and powerful unknown presence that she talks to. In the video we see her sitting at a local police station not saying a word to a jabbering officer trying to help.  The officer later becomes frightened when the coffee mug he placed on the table is lifted off and thrown against the wall, and chooses to leave Jodie. Left alone she starts to interact with this supernatural being stating that she knew that SWAT was coming for her. Right after SWAT members start to storm the building and position themselves to try to capture Jodie. The door to where she is opens than the video than cuts to an amazing montage of what else is in store for the game. The video alone was enough to give me goose bumps.

Team ICO vs. almost the rest of Sony

By now anyone who plays games or follows them knows about the setbacks that have fallen upon Team ICO’s latest project The Last Guardian.  In a recent article on Kotaku, Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Worldwide studios, said that Ueda, the game’s director, for better or worse is making the game tough to develop.  For those who played Team ICO’s previous two gamesm, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, know that they are very polished and enjoyable games, but for each game’s respective length is the development cycle a little too drawn out?  On the most recent episode of Podcast Beyond (227) the Beyond crew (Colin Moriarty, Ryan Clements, Greg Miller) discussed this hot topic in the Sony world and how other studios are pumping out games faster that Team ICO and with almost the same pedigree in the quality department.  So this got me thinking about the topic a little more and decided to do a little research and I’d like to share it with all of you to give you some context to the absurdity of The Last Guardian’s development time.

Assuming that The Last Guardian went into development either concurrently or immediately after Shadow of the Colossus’s release it has almost been in development for 7 years (2005 – present).  So with that information I took to the internet to track down some facts about other studios and found out how many games have been released within other internal Sony studios in the same general time frame.  I warn you that these statistics may be alarming so approach the following with caution.

After looking at some (not all) of Sony’s internal studios I generated a list of games that came out after 2005 from each respective studio and then did some basic addition to derive a number that is borderline upsetting for Team ICO.  Since 2005 the studios I will list below (with games) have developed and released 45 games to Team ICO’s 1 that is still in development.  Like I said a couple sentences ago that isn’t all the games or studios so that number is far larger in the grand scheme of things, but 45 is still nothing to sneeze at.

Most of Sony (not all)

Average score for Most of Sony – 83.26

[Updated: Added available Metacritic scores and averaged them per developer and as a whole]

• Naughty Dog – average score – 88
  • Jak X: Combat Racing – (2005) – 76
  • Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007) – 88
  • Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) – 96
  • Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (2011) – 92
• Guerilla Games (just Sony Properties) – average score – 84
  • Killzone Liberation (PSP) – (2006) – 77
  • Killzone 2 – (2009) – 91
  • Killzone 3 – (2011) – 84
• Santa Monica Studios (Internally developed) – average score – 93
  • God of War – (2005) – 94
  • God of War 2 – (2007) – 93
  • God of War 3 – (2010) – 92
• Insomniac Games – average score – 82.3
  • Ratchet: Deadlocked – (2005) – 81
  • Resistance: Fall of Man – (2006) – 86
  • Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction – (2007) – 89
  • Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty – (2008) – 76
  • Resistance 2 – (2008) – 87
  • Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time – (2009) – 87
  • Resistance 3 – (2011) – 83
  • Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One – (2011) – 70
•  Sony Bend Studios – average score – 83.25
  • Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror – (2006) – 87
  • Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow – (2007) – 85
  • Syphon Filter: Combat Ops – (2007) – n/a
  • Resistance: Retribution – (2009) – 81
  • Uncharted: Golden Abyss – (2012) – 80
• Sony San Diego (Internally Developed) – average score – 74.3
  • All the MLB: The Shows (PS3 versions only besides 2006)
    • MLB 06: The Show (2006) (PS2) – 83
    • MLB 07: The Show (2007) – 77
    • MLB 08: The Show (2008) – 85
    • MLB 09: The Show (2009) – 90
    • MLB 10: The Show (2010) – 91
    • MLB 11: The Show (2011) – 90
    • MLB 12: The Show (2012) – n/a
  • All the NBAs (Sony NBA) (PS3 versions only besides 2006 and 2009)
    • NBA 06 (2005) (PSP) – 72
    • NBA 06 (2005) (PS2) – 63
    • NBA 07 (2006) – 63
    • NBA 08 (2007) – 63
    • NBA 09 (2008) – 63
    • NBA 10 (PSP only) (2009) – 69
  • ModNation Racers – (2010) – 82
  • Sports Champions – (2010) – 76
  • Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest – (2011) – 61
  • ModNation Racers: Road Trip – (2012) – 61
• Polyphony Digital – average score – 78
  • Tourist Trophy – (2006) – 74
  • Gran Turismo HD – (2006) – n/a
  • Gran Turismo 5 Prologue – (2007) – 80
  • Gran Turismo PSP – (2009) – 74
  • Gran Turismo 5 – (2010) – 84

Team ICO – average score – 91

• Shadow of the Colossus – (2005) – 91
• The Last Guardian – (???)

There is no doubt that Fumito Ueda, the former leader of Team ICO, is a brilliant and talented video game developer, but that brilliance and talent needs to be coupled with focus and compliance.  Other studios within Sony’s umbrella have been creating and releasing games much faster than Team ICO and have been incredible (i.e. the Uncharted series).  Another thing the Beyond Crew pointed out is that this team has been getting paid for 6 going on 7 years and hasn’t even finished one product.  Name any other studio, besides Polyphony Digital, the makers of Gran Turismo, which would be given that kind of leniency in regards to development time.  Most publishers would have shit canned Team ICO if they took as long as they are taking currently.  This also begs the question does Sony give preferential treatment to Team ICO/Studio Japan for reasons outside of an industrial context?  Would Naughty Dog be given the same pass if they wanted to take another 5 years to develop The Last of Us (I sincerely hope not)?  We could speculate all day about the answer to that question, but we will save that for another day.  This will continue to be a hot topic in the world of video games until some ground is broke on The Last Guardian.  Until definitive information is disseminated down to us about a release date and any developmental resolutions, it will all continue to just be conjecture.  So what do you all think about this?  Do you think Team ICO needs to get their asses in gear and finish up the game or should they be allowed to take their sweet time to give us their “vision” of the game?  Sound off in the comments section and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

As a final disclaimer I want to play the hell out of The Last Guardian.  Also I give my consent for this article and research to be used on other sites/blogs.  I want this research to be continued and more detailed.  The numbers were provided via Metacritic.  I was given inspiration for this research by the Podcast Beyond crew from IGN which is comprised of Colin Moriarty, Ryan Clements and Greg Miller.  So a thank you for them is in order as well.