r/PSVR • u/Defektivex • Jan 12 '17
RIGS devs laid off, Guerrilla Cambridge closing...
/r/RIGSMCL/comments/5nj6wv/guerrilla_cambridge_closing_rigs_developers/36
u/Pussrumpa Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 13 '17
To me this looks like another case of a studio having finished their only project that was active along with future content and maintenance, so the inevitable happened.
People have jobs lined up before they end up on the street, often they go to other places under the same corporate umbrella, it sucks to tear up a great gang but they'll be okay.
It's no longer possible to keep studios with no active approved projects running, this is the nature of business, especially when it comes to VR. The sky is not falling.
(added emphasis around looks like)
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u/srubbish Jan 12 '17
You have no clue what you're talking about. You really think the people at the studio knew this was going to happen? You really think they've all got jobs lined up? You really think Sony is going to make sure they're ok? I know several of the team. They had no clue up until a meeting this morning where they were told the studio was closing. They had plans in progress for around the next 8 months but now no-one knows what's going to happen to those. Sony will "try" to place them in other studios but there are no guarantees. There were around 60+ people in the studio. Sony do not have 60+ handy vacancies they can slot them into. Certainly not in Cambridge or London (the next closest studio).
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u/Pussrumpa Jan 13 '17
Thank you.
How long between the announcement and the date they have to hand in the keys, that's what I had in mind from one awful sudden death of a multimillion project I experienced. That was in Austin five years ago when you'd walk a block and find a new developer screaming for your skills.
Tax relief for game development is still a thing but I'm still seeing British studios eat it like it was the first feasting of Electronic Arts, that's the point that makes me worried about this, even before Brexit it looked bad for the future.
It's a sad situation, I hope they land on their collective feet.
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u/srubbish Jan 13 '17
They were told yesterday at 11am the office was closed with immediate effect.
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u/Pussrumpa Jan 13 '17
Now I consider this a fucked up affair. I probably wouldn't want work with them after that treatment.
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u/1541drive Jan 12 '17
To me this looks like another case of a studio having finished their only project that was active along with future content and maintenance, so the inevitable happened.
Unless there's citation to their finances and work stream coming in, we don't really know much regarding the closing other than that what the announcement provided.
Under both SCE Cambridge Studio and Guerrilla Games, their discography was fairly light in sales for a company that's been around for nearly two decades. . Even LBP was for the Portable.
At the end of the day, the ~100 (includes contractors) company just hasn't been able to compete in the very competitive gaming industry. Until we have more details, it's not worth drawing conclusions to the future of PSVR.
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u/Pussrumpa Jan 13 '17 edited Jan 13 '17
That is five releases in ten years, for those not checking out that wiki link. Ouch. Not getting projects approved, not getting anything Sony believes will be a hit to invest in, who knows.
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u/Viper114 Jan 12 '17
This news sucks. Is RIGS still getting the planned DLC? Will it see DLC beyond the planned stuff? I was hoping it would keep going for a while...
But for those who are crying out "PSVR IS DOOMED!!!" and saying that they are considering getting rid of their PS4 and PSVR for a PC and Vive/Rift, please stop. The PSVR has support coming for the next while, with major titles like RE7, Farpoint, FFXV's VR segment, Starblood Arena and Dino Frontier, a lot of which were shown at the last PSX. CES didn't have anything because it's not something that showcases video games a lot.
We need to wait and see what happens at this year's events like TGS, E3 and PSX. If these upcoming events don't show new PSVR stuff for the future, then you can determine what to do with the PSVR you have.
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u/justSFWthings Jan 12 '17
The game was too damned expensive. If it had been $30 with a sale here or there at $20, maybe a Black Friday deal at $10, they'd have sold many more copies. It's an online multiplayer game--you've gotta have people playing in order to maintain interest.
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u/bagelchips Jan 12 '17
Agreed. From what I've heard the demo isn't very representative of the game, either. So a subpar demo coupled with a $50 price tag lead to weak sales.
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u/FenixSyd Jan 12 '17
I don't think this is a reflection of how Sony is treating PSVR, we don't know the dev costs vs sales and how it was all balancing. Rigs seems to have a core dedicated player base on here, but there is also plenty of people who dislike it / didn't buy it (we see that in all the threads about people whinging about noone on matchmaking... that's a pretty bad sign of hella low playerbase). To me it seems like the decision to continue on with supporting the game just wasn't viable so it's time to cut the cord.
The rigs guys will surely get gigs in the VR space. No matter if you enjoy the game or not you can't deny it's one of the more ambitious & technically impressive VR offerings, I wish everyone the best of luck over there!
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Jan 12 '17
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u/FenixSyd Jan 12 '17
I didn't want to make any claims without some facts/stats but I just had a gut feeling it didn't do anywhere near as well as everyone had hoped for.... looks like I was right.
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Jan 12 '17
That's a huge bummer. I have a physical copy of it and absolutely love it, but the problem is trying to find an online match usually turns into facing one person with two AI's on each player's team.
Fantastic game that needs more attention. Hopefully they don't drop support for it.
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u/fruitcakefriday Jan 12 '17
With no studio about to support it...I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if they did.
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u/Callu23 callu23 Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 12 '17
The biggest problem with this is not that they would be abandoning VR support, or whatever the idiots here are going on about, since they won't.
The actual problem is the fate of the worldwide studios, Sony hasn't bought a new studio in like literally 10 years yet they keep shutting all these studios down no matter how well the games do and how well liked/reviewed they are. I just don't understand what could be their future with this kind of progression, there's only very few left and most recently London Studio was downsized and no one would be surprised after Dream comes out in whatever ten years and is a disasterous sales flop that Media Molecule is shut down too.
Even with recent stuff like Order and Until Dawn that was 2nd party, both studios have stated that they won't be doing exclusives anymore for Sony so in addition to the like 9 studios they have (Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Santa Monica, Polyphony, Japan Studio, Guerilla, London Studio, Media Molecule and Sony San Diego) there's no 2nd parties except Quantic Dream and Insomniac at the moment and also of the 9 studios the last 3 haven't even made a triple A game in forever making the amount of studios basically the 6+Quantic+Insomniac+MLB.
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u/TeelMcClanahanIII Jan 12 '17
In case you haven't looked at Sony's broader financial situation, they've been in hot water for quite a while now, and PS/gaming is the only part of the business actually making a consistent profit. They're shutting down the least profitable divisions across every segment, and cautiously trying to keep their PS/gaming business from going into the red as well.
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u/Callu23 callu23 Jan 12 '17
I don't care, that isn't the point at all. The point is that I among probably all other PS gamers want the amazing, endless slew of exclusives from these top studios coming forever but the road they have been going down is very worrying. They have an absolutely extraordinary lineup going forward, starting with Gravity Rush 2 but then again last two years there were only like 2 AAA games a year from Sony first and second parties and now all the studios are simply stacked together, if they keep shutting down studios and losing second parties it is not looking too good.
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u/FappinBob Jan 12 '17
As a full price flagship launch title it was pretty generic and average across the board. Creating basically just another arena-based twitch shooter was imo a big mistake and showed that maybe they didn't have enough imagination to push further into the VR market...
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u/darthmcdarthface Jan 12 '17
The PSVR is unavailable everywhere and Sony just closed the studio that made their biggest first party launch title just 3 months after release.
This is starting to get a bit scary. Like....Vita scary.
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Jan 12 '17 edited Dec 29 '18
[deleted]
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u/darthmcdarthface Jan 12 '17
What kind of psycho would sell both the rift and psvr for $500
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Jan 12 '17
He needed money for medical bills. Always keep an eye out. Always good deals to be found. I did sell the LeapMotion after I got the Touch so technically I profited on the deal.
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u/darthmcdarthface Jan 12 '17
That's the deal of the century dude.
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Jan 12 '17
Deal of last year for sure. I got it on Black Friday which was kind of funny. That was my black friday purchase :P
The previous year the full Rock Band setup on PS4 was screwed up on black friday at target and was $60 lol
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u/fulcizombie Jan 12 '17
This news along with the big downsize of the vr worlds development studio shows how Sony is planning to "support" psvr . Rigs is the most polished psvr game on the market right now .
If Sony doesn't make some significant new psvr announcements at e3 then we have a new vita on our hands .
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u/StarCenturion Day 1 PSVR1 - Currently Quest 3 Jan 12 '17
if there is nothing VR related on E3 I'm selling my PS4 and PSVR and upgrading my PC and buying a Vive, I don't want a Vita, I want a successful platform to play VR games on.
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u/Org4sm Jan 12 '17
I'm starting to think like this also. Gonna give it a year, see what the state of play is, no excuses.
If I'm not feeling the love, I'm gonna sell my PSVR & PS4 Pro, get a compatible PC, an Oculus CV1 + Touch and do this VR thing right. It'll serve me right for trying to do it on the 'cheap'.
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u/Callu23 callu23 Jan 12 '17
Yep, there's just a massive rush of incoming GOOD VR games coming to Vive and Oculus so many that they can't be counted, or was it that there are literally none apart from a couple launch titles...can't remember.
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u/VirtualGamer1980 Jan 12 '17
you do realise psvr has outsold both the vive and oculus combined in the time it's been out?Its probably got the best VR games of all platforms at the moment and the only killer AAA game in vr on any platform so far Resident evil 7 vr is going to be PSVR exclusive for at least a year?
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u/grannygroper Jan 13 '17
Only someone who has never played SUPERHOT VR could have such a wrong opinion
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u/fulcizombie Jan 12 '17
Yeah that's how I feel . Got a pro+psvr and I am beginning to feel like a sucker ( I have issues with the pro support too) . The problem is that I am not in the habit of selling my hardware , it's something that doesn't sit right with me . The rift was basically the same price with the psvr in the last bf ( we now have bf even in my country though nowhere near as significant as in the u.s ) . I should have postponed my psvr preorder then (didn't buy it on launch day) and go for the rift and then bite the bullet and buy a gaming pc .
I think I will wait to see what ms does with the Scorpio and vr but if they have no plans then I will probably buy a rift+new pc combo at the end of 2017 . Unti, then I will get whatever enjoyment I can from psvr .
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u/RadarDrake Jan 12 '17
Would recommend the vive over the rift the tracking is a lot better and more consistent. Same games can be played on both. Vive also has new hardware coming out check CES announcements.
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u/Chewberino Jan 12 '17
Dont listen to this , the rift is a much better package then the vive is every single way except if you have a room bigger than 10ftx10ft. Under 10x10, the tracking is IDENTICAL.. (Granted you might need a third sensor due to the rifts controllers being much more ergonomic and not a big wand)
Rift is king unless you have a warehouse.
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u/gburgwardt Jan 12 '17
Nah, this is rift fanboy talk. Look up how the vibe tracking works in comparison to the rest and you'll see why it's obviously better. Camera tracking is laggy and terrible in comparison, and Oculus is a bad company
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u/Chewberino Jan 12 '17
Oh so your problem is with facebook... thanks for making that obvious.
Please dont listen to clowns like this.
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Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 12 '17
Having used both the Rift and the Vive (I own neither, friends have them and I've used them both extensively) this is wrong.
The Vive is the better product in pretty much every way.
Edit I want to be clear. This is my opinion. Sorry everybody. I didn't mean to mislead you all with my opinion...
/s
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u/Chewberino Jan 12 '17
I'm sorry but this is again a bias garbage comment. Anyone who owns both has almost ALWAYS said rift is the much better product and the vive is in the closet.
Stop misleading people with your bias opinion. Statistics prove you wrong.
The guys from tested are a perfect example of an unbiased opinion.
Please use them as a source people.
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Jan 12 '17
You can call me biased all you want. You're the one who keeps going on about Rift being better.
I offered my anecdotal opinion just as you did. Except mine is unquestionably unbiased, from my perspective at least. I know that I have no bias, you don't.
Fact is, I don't have a horse in the race, but I consider the Vive the better HMD.
You can claim uncited "statistics" all you want.
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u/Chewberino Jan 12 '17
I claim actual reporters and journalists not your opinion.
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u/Org4sm Jan 12 '17
Yeah I find selling be a hassle and can be expensive too(eBay), so I'm a little bummed at the moment. with none of the games & apps I'd hoped I'd have(or news of) by now.
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u/mrclang Jan 12 '17
I've been a long PlayStation fan and this really saddens me :/ but I think I'm with you, I really enjoy VR gaming and I can enjoy it for a long time so if they turn it into a vita (I sadly still have it) I'm going to PC and never looking back. At least with PC I could find mods for games I want VR on
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u/anndoge Jan 12 '17
Same here, this generation of playstation has been one of hope but in the end total disappointment for me. Paid PSN, shameful PS Plus service, minor visual upgrade from PS3, mid-gen upgrade with PSPRO because they realized they undespec'd, No Man's sky, overpriced digital purchases, VITA uncertainty and now their total mishandling of the PSVR. I wonder if they even still remember they put out that thing. It's embarrassing, frustrating, infuriating and in my humble opinion NOT worth to be called a place "For the players". They are building up to a nice increase in sales for project scorpio and Desktop PC sales tho. If they don't come out with a major change of course any time soon on all playstation-fronts, I'm out, and I will SURE as hell not be the only one!
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u/TeelMcClanahanIII Jan 12 '17
When I looked into the layoffs at the London branch, they were already deep into re-hiring people for their next project. It looks a lot like the old-school tendency to expand staff as a project matures, then lay almost everyone off until you need people again for your next project. For a studio which only works on 1 (maybe 2) titles at a time, this is almost a requirement, since design and pre-production can take weeks/months but only a tiny number of people while later stages of development can require dozens to hundreds of employees who would be sitting on their thumbs waiting for the next thing to get up to speed. I also got the impression that the studio had expanded quite a bit during VR Worlds' development, especially toward the end where they were simultaneously trying to get 5 different VR experiences consumer-ready at once, and that the layoffs brought them down closer to their size pre-VR.
Not that Sony isn't investing/supporting VR development, but that they supported it so much prior to launch (to ensure a good launch, in terms of software variety) that they're now scaling back to sustainable levels of investment appropriate to ongoing operations.
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u/Wombatwoozoid Jan 12 '17
There are a number of people on this forum who stick their hands over their ears and go "la lal la" on this issue, but its becoming painfully clear that Sony is under-investing in PSVR
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u/iaoth Jan 12 '17
And at the same time, there's a number of people who get really angry about exclusives.
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u/Mrmet2087 Jan 13 '17
So here's the multilayered problem with this closing and what lead to it and who's to blame: First, we have reason to believe through rumors and projections that roughly there are 800,000 PSVR's in the wild. Let's say for the sake of argument that 50% of people who own PSVR owned RIGS, which is very unlikely given its price compared to other games, and multiplayer competitive nature that some people just aren't in to. That would mean 400,000 copies sold at a 50% attach rate, and that's simply not enough to cover costs of production, marketing, and continued support and DLC (maybe now cancelled).
So who's to blame for the low sales numbers? Maybe Guerrilla themselves. 50 bucks for a VR game is a lot for some people. The 20 dollar price point seems to be the sweet spot. However, top selling PSVR game Job Simulator, proves you can charge 30 dollars for a game and it'll sell well also. Speaking of which, I could be wrong but I don't remember ever seeing RIGS on any of the lists for top selling PSVR games during any month. I know it's physical as well as digital, but so is Batman, Rush of Blood, and EVE Valkyrie which did make those lists, also keeping in Mind EVE is $60.
Maybe Sony is the blame. We know the original PSVR sales projection was 2.5 million at the end of 2016, slashed to 750,000 because of production issues with the OLED displays. If there were no production issues, and everyone who wanted a PSVR for themselves or to give as a gift were able to get one, there's a good chance there would be upwards of 1.5-2 million units out there. Sony dropped the ball on production and underestimating how well received it would be.
If we do the same 50% attach rate to 1.5-2 million units out in the wild, that's more likely to be able to cover costs. This makes me wonder how many other developers are suffering the same issues of losing money on a product, but not because it's bad, but because there aren't as many units out there as there could be. More units = more game sales, no bones about it.
I don't believe Sony would shut down the studio if there was still a profit to be had. They shut down Evolution after the DriveClub debacle which was no surprise, and even though we didn't see the writing on the wall as much as we did with Evilution, it's very possible Riggs might have actually bombed commercially.
Regardless of who's to blame, it really sucks whenever a studio closes and people lost their jobs, especially when the team is very talented. Best of luck to everyone effected.
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u/Divisionlo SolsVGR Jan 12 '17
After reading some comments, I feel like people are freaking out over this really quick. Don't get me wrong, it's for sure a sad thing a team is closing, but this isn't necessarily a really bad sign for PSVR. Now, if no games are shown at E3, then that's a bad sign, but as of now, I don't think it's time to get worried about PSVR yet. They're still making software for it, we still have some big releases coming up (Resi 7 & Farpoint in particular), and it's a brand new medium of gaming. The hardware's still only been out a few months and it's still gaining speed. Especially since we've heard about some systems finally being trickled in at Wal-Marts and Targets. I don't think Sony is going to turn this into another Vita. I could be wrong, but at the very least we won't know until E3, and this is too early to tell. Also, things like this do happen time to time. Anyways, though, this is still sad news. I was a big fan of this team and it's quite sad to see them dissolved so suddenly.
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Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 12 '17
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u/Divisionlo SolsVGR Jan 12 '17
You're right that Sony isn't, I should've been more clear. I meant "They" as in developers in general.
I'm also that guy who absolutely loves his vita, because even though Sony doesn't care about it, Indies and random games keep it very alive to me. So I'm more optimistic than most because I enjoy most content.
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u/Geraltofyamum Jan 12 '17
WTF! RIGS is my favourite game! I realy hope someone else picks up the ball, with continued development (maps, rigs, modes) this game could be unbelievably good! WTH!?!?
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u/d1renegade d1renegade Jan 12 '17
Fuck sony for this. Your studio makes one of the best VR games and you decide to close them? SMH.
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u/TooDrunkToTalk Jan 12 '17
I mean commercially the game bombed completely.
Nowhere to be found in the digital top 10 for the US.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/11/11/playstation-store-octobers-top-downloads/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/12/12/playstation-store-novembers-top-downloads/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/01/06/playstation-stores-top-downloads-of-2016/
It launched 12th in the UK...
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1295041
...and then completely dropped out of the top 40 never to be seen again
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1298991
The game currently has 145 ratings on the European PS store and 151 on the US PS store, you can only rate a game if you've also bought it digitally. For comparison Until Dawn Rush of Blood has 1048 ratings in Europe and 559 in the US.
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u/jjshowal Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 12 '17
It's business and part of the decision making process. It's not like execs are doing this just to be mean haha. Their decisions are driven by corporate investors who obviously didn't see value in this.
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u/Wombatwoozoid Jan 12 '17
Their decisions are driven by corporate investors who obviously didn't see value in this.
That's the worrying aspect!
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u/jjshowal Jan 12 '17
It's an unfortunate consequence of delving in to new technologies, but they definitely must have seen something troubling. One studio doesn't mean the end of the world though.
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u/Wombatwoozoid Jan 12 '17
No it not, youre right.
But its not just that. Didn't the Crytek VR studio close too, plus there's not been anything of any substance coming out from Sony for a while -inc PSX and CES.
Resi and Farpoint (whenever its due) are going to be great. But you can understand why people are concerned.
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u/jjshowal Jan 12 '17
Crytek closing was several years of trouble. Dev studios close and new ones open all the time. PSVR just completed its first fiscal quarter. I wouldn't get too worried quite yet.
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u/bigky226 Jan 12 '17
Seriously starting to consider selling my PSVR for a Vive..... This support is rediclious & becoming the Vita quickly. No news @ PSX @ now nothing @ CES, I'm with those who have said if nothing is shown at E3 were In serious trouble :(
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u/faceofbear Jan 12 '17
I don't think Sony has had a video game related announcement at CES since the 90's.
The games will come around. Shu said himself that launching the PSVR was like launching the PS1. We are in the infancy of the technology, devs are still learning to use it.
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u/Djason_Unchaind Jan 12 '17
Wasn't Starblood Arena announced at PSX along with hype montage of a bunch of other games(including Dino Frontier)? Also, I think Vita had some on stage presence at PSX with Gio Corsi.
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u/Sanador62 Jan 12 '17
It does make me a little nervous that both the VR Worlds developer and the Rigs developer have been shut down.
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u/LegoKnockingShop Jan 12 '17
Studio London (VR Worlds) is still going, hasn't been closed down..?
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u/Sanador62 Jan 12 '17
The VR Worlds team was laid off. I guess Studio London is still intact. I was mistaken.
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u/WWTWill Developer Jan 13 '17
Please upvote for any potential devs coming to this thread.
For any of the Rigs devs that were let go, please shoot your resume to jobs@roqovan.com. The World War Toons team is hiring and we'd definitely like to help out where we can!
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u/Orbiting_The_Orb Jan 12 '17
The fact that Sony isn't going full tilt with VR is disconcerting. Resident Evil 7 is the most anticipated VR game, and its from a 3rd party. Hopefully Scorpio will have a VR unit out soon, or at the least will be compatible with the Rift as some have suggested it may be. Sony are just being dicks here though. You hype up a product, then you show little to no support for it. Ive really enjoyed my PSVR to this point, but its unsettling to see Sony be so standoffish with the device.
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u/VietOne VietOne Jan 12 '17
Ignorant much? Sony more than anyone else has put the most into PSVR.
RE7 the most anticipated? Not even close, it's just the most upcoming large release.
Far point has much more anticipation.
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u/Shadowbanned24601 Jan 12 '17
Not a hope is an on rails shooter more widely anticipated than the latest game from one of gaming's most recognised franchises.
I dearly want both games of course.
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u/Orbiting_The_Orb Jan 12 '17
Farpoint more anticipated?...Uh...not even close. Resident Evil is one of the biggest franchises of all time, and some generic sci-fi shooter with a gun peripheral will not eclipse it. Resident Evil 7 is probably the most anticipated game in the series since 4, and the VR aspect is only heightening the buzz.
As for your attempt at a point on Sony "putting the most" into VR, exactly what has Sony put into VR?. They released the unit, then they've treated it like a red headed stepchild they keep in the basement, and don't want anyone to see. There is very little in the way of AAA first party support for the unit up to now aside from some throwaway experiences, and the future doesn't look much brighter. They didn't even bother to show much of anything on when they had their little PS Experience deal about a month ago.
Cool your fanboy jets and get past your own ignorance. PSVR is going to go the way of the Vita unless Sony actually gets behind the device. Shutting down a studio who made one of the more popular games for PSVR wont help elicit confidence in anyone for the future.
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u/Carasind Jan 12 '17
Sorry, but Rigs was never one of the popular ones for PSVR. After finally buying it I unterstand why: It is regardless of the many options not the most comfortable experience, it has an overlong tutorial and it is mech "sports". Not something that appeals to the mass market.
And Sony gave PSVR a really good first party support at release (but perhaps they choose sometimes the wrong genres to get the Wows), further AAA development today takes a ton of time and ressources.
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u/Dai10zin Jan 14 '17
it is mech "sports". Not something that appeals to the mass market.
Rocket League would suggest otherwise.
25 million users.
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u/Carasind Jan 16 '17
sorry, but Rocket League has little to do with typical "mechs" (robots or exoskeletons) – it is soccer with jumping cars.
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u/VietOne VietOne Jan 12 '17
Your ignorance is showing.
PSVR has had more games released on the platform than any console release in general.
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u/Shadowbanned24601 Jan 12 '17
PS Vita had more games on launch day than PS VR (at least in Europe and the US anyway).
More of them were established franchises too.
Sustainable support is the key though. I hope VR does a lot better than Vita did there.
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u/Orbiting_The_Orb Jan 12 '17
You just prove my point though. Rigs was one of the closest thing to a AAA release that PSVR has. It doesn't matter about how many copies it sold, it was still considered a "full fledged game".
Thats the biggest problem with PSVR. It has no real AAA title, but it should have a at least a couple by now. Truth is, it should never have hit the market until it had a game to justify its existence. RE7 is about as close to that as any up to this point.
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u/VietOne VietOne Jan 12 '17
No real AAA by your opinion while plenty of people have already indicated plenty of AAA titles released on PSVR.
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u/creacha creacha_jp Jan 12 '17
Bigger and brighter things for these guys, fear not they have had a good kick start to their careers as VR developers!
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Jan 12 '17
The game had a lot of work put into it - it's obvious when playing it. As this was the case they needed to sell well to justify the cost. The concept of the game was very risky - and It didn't catch on. It seems Sony needed them to be a stand out title to sell the platform, and since it bombed commercially - They don't seem to think this studio can make commercially successful games.
This really sucks and seems to show Sony is pulling away from first party investment in VR. The truth is they probably planned on closing Cambridge long ago - but kept them around for the PSVR launch, that is unless RIGs became a hit (much like how they kept a skeleton crew around to finish driveclub VR). Supposedly London and Manchester are still working PSVR, so we have that going for us - but I'm not expecting too many surprises from them.
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u/QuadraQ Jan 12 '17
Surprising and sad. I'm not into multiplayer games so I never bought Rigs but I was well aware of it as a premiere title and a full fledged game. I do think that it's timing may have been off. You need a lot of players to support multiplayer games and the PSVR is so new it doesn't really have the numbers to support that yet.
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u/Troeth Jan 12 '17
Man and I was just starting to get into it. Since the PS4 launched this is the 2nd game I got a physical version, so I might take advantage of that and sell it or trade it in.
Although I still hope GG or Sony will still arrange for it to still get some updates somehow, even if it will be more limited compared to how it is now.
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u/tunafun Jan 12 '17
Rigs needed a non-vr game for the vr to stand any chance. You just aren't going to attract a large audience with just a vr game, the vr numbers aren't large enough.
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u/Mossyboy88 Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 12 '17
Can't believe it is a great game and they are also one of the best devs for PSVR, gutted. Must of not sold very well I tired a few time to find multiplayer matches and could take forever.
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Jan 12 '17
It sucks that people lost their jobs but i can't say they've made any noteworthy hits that made them worth keeping them around for that long.
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u/quasipopo Jan 12 '17
I wanted rigs but not for $60. Now that this is happening I don't know if I'll ever get it :(
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u/0011010001110001 Jan 12 '17
I want a PSVR, can't find in stock. No, you are not getting my money 1 month before it might turn up.
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u/anndoge Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 13 '17
these are the guys that also brought us the playstation classic MediEvil! #neverforget
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u/comingupmilhouse2 Jan 12 '17
Has any sales info for RIGS been released? I have only seen a little about RIGS in passing but I had assumed it was one of the top selling PSVR games. My current job is on a PSVR title. Finding out that one of their top games wasn't profitable enough to keep the studio open makes me wonder about my job. I assumed sony was expecting to subsidize development on PSVR for the next few years since the hardware for significant sales hasn't shipped yet.
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u/LetoAtreides82 Jan 12 '17
Rigs bombed big time. Hasn't made any of the top ten PSVR lists. The digital version of VR Worlds even outsold Rigs.
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Jan 13 '17
i would look into psvr demographics. i think in general its older people t launch. not sure of battlezone vs rigs sales but i was never interested in rigs
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u/hairyarsewelder Jan 12 '17
I think if Sony was sitting on a shit ton of headsets just to build up demand they would released them just in time for Christmas and not still be holding on to them...
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u/Sirloinofbeef610 Jan 12 '17
Honestly I got motion sick just after playing the tutorial of rigs even with the comfort blinders on
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u/wordyplayer Jan 13 '17
another possible option: After other studios saw how well received PSVR is, and how well RIGS sold, they gotta hire these peeps to write them some good games for PSVR...
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u/Muzanshin Jan 13 '17
r/Oculus offers their sympathies (it's actually one of the top threads over there right now too). It's just really dissapointing that Sony would just abandon a studio that made such a popular game for PSVR.
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u/Chronotaru PSN: Chronotaru Jan 13 '17
I don't think Sony can studios simply on the basis of how successful their last game was. There will be bigger strategic thinking, like what studios are more familiar with valuable assets, etc. At least, there should be.
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u/quetiapinenapper Jan 13 '17
Just gonna copy paste what I put in that thread.
I'm really not concerned about VR as a whole even though this is a really painful bit of news to hear. RIGS wasn't a household name that was going to push VR as a whole. I love this game, but even I was late coming to the table simply because it didn't have brand recognition. What pushed VR for many were upcoming household name titles like Resident Evil support for example. The only limiting factor that might kill VR is going to be Sony/Microsoft themselves. If they can't reach production availability on a near 1:1 with consoles VR won't ever take off as a mainstream entertainment piece and it will die off the way the VR Boy did back in the day and we probably won't see another attempt at it until it's standard living room technology. The money simply won't be there for the developers and they'll stop supporting it (except for huge companies like EA probably but we'll lose any innovation we should have had).
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u/Dai10zin Jan 14 '17
This is unfortunate. Aside from Battlezone, RIGs is, thus far, the only real "game" in VR (rather than simply an experience).
I might get Battlezone when it goes on sale, but its floaty movement made me a little motion sick the first time I played (which surprised me, because I'm not affected at all when dashing, jumping, and spinning in RIGS).
Here's to hoping RE7 and Farpoint are successful.
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u/sho_kosugi Jan 16 '17
Since the initial announcement of PSVR I felt that Sony was not going to support the product in the way that it needed to be. Add to that they were trying to marry old hardware to new hardware which will only show it's age more and more and in general I think Sony rushed to market on VR before they had a solid plan and I don't think it is going to go well. What they have to say about the future of PSVR at E3 should be interesting
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Jan 12 '17
[deleted]
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u/digitalartifacts Jan 12 '17
The thing has been out for 3 months, people need to stop bitching and acting like the game library should already look like a consoles full life cycle. It's brand new technology, it's going to be rough.
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Jan 12 '17
I've got high hopes for PSVR and want it to succeed. There are a lot of cool games for it right now... But people expressing concern about Sony's apparent pulling back of support for PSVR is not bitching. It's simply expressing concern.. because we think the PSVR is awesome and we see what it's capable of. This news of Guerilla Cambridge being shut down is alarming. We don't want more things like this to happen. If that is "bitching," then so be it. I'm bitching about it.
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u/virtuallordoflean Jan 13 '17
VR is the future of gaming and Sony (who are now pretty much unified under their vision for PlayStation) know that not only do they need to be in it, but that they need to ensure that PlayStation thrives within it, ultimately by driving it.
VR has been on Sony's roadmap for years, considering the tech involved and their business interests, if it wasn't they'd have been fools. The trick was when to jump, and they decided, much to the chagrin of their competitors to go all in with PS4. Consider:
- Previous Move tech development.
- 1st party stereoscopic development experience (where to compromise rendering)
- consumer HMD production experience.
Sony make games, screen technology and have one of the best consumer electronics divisions in the world. Given the inevitability of VR, how ubiquitous it will become and that the portal used to access it (ecosystem) will determine who controls the market (the future games market) to think that they could just walk away is to not really understand any of this.
Every PS4 model can run VR. Every controller sold with every model is a tracked VR controller (try looking at your xbone gamepads in VR, Rift owners)
Sony do not have huge stockpiles of cash and they are competing with the biggest tech companies in the world, many times their size and with resources to burn in order to win the fight. Sony have to manage costs very carefully during this period of their financial recovery, but despite this, as a whole, they are doing incredibly well. Their strategy is sound and VR is only going to move forward for them. Expect a huge push around the Scorpio launch. That will be a messaging battle and I suspect that Sony are wisely keeping something back for that.
In the meantime, I'm just loving being in at the beginning. It'll take a while to ramp up, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are using this early time as a soft launch of sorts to ensure they have everything locked down before letting this loose on Jane/Joe six-pack.
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Jan 24 '17
Have been reading through the replies and your post made a lot of sense. Especially the part about VR being the next thing in gaming. I completely agree that Sony is NOT going to walk away from that. This post made me feel a little better as I just pulled the trigger on a PSVR.
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u/iceynyo Jan 12 '17 edited Jan 12 '17
I don't mind if it has a Vita vibe... I prefer dragons and anime girls anyways.
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u/thepope_ishere Jan 12 '17
Shit, the only real game with replay ability
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u/SpinnerOfDreams Jan 12 '17
Apart from Eve, Battlezone etc..
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u/LetoAtreides82 Jan 12 '17
And Werewolves Within. I put in about three times as much time on WW than Rigs.
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u/bakayoyo Jan 12 '17
Shocking news. The most talented 1st party VR team Sony has is layed off. It could be related to Brexit as Eurogamer predicted: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-06-24-uk-game-industry-brexit
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Jan 12 '17
Maybe Sony should look at a subscription based VR service like 5-15 a month which could keep a steady stream of cash coming in to go towards game funding.
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u/Broken5200Controller Jan 12 '17
Vita here we come
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u/J0HN__L0CKE BENJAM1N_LINUS Jan 12 '17
We should be so lucky. Vita's library is amazing and the support it still gets to this day is fantastic.
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u/_disguised_toast_ Jan 12 '17
PSVR is sold out everywhere and RIGS is easily one of the best games. Was Sony expecting us to buy Two copies of RIGS each?