To be honest, when we first heard about Shuhei Yoshida – Phil Harrison's replacement as president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios – we didn't like him. Sure, he's probably outrageously qualified for the gig, but we feel like we went through hell with Harrison, deep in the trenches on the front lines of a nasty console war. So, basically, we're saying that we haven't bonded with Yoshida. Yet.
In an interview with Develop Magazine, Yoshida comes semi-clean on Sony's seemingly swift decision to can Eight Days, one of the two London Studios games cancelled earlier this month (the other was, of course, The Getaway). The main culprit: a "key" corporate focus on "online technology and PlayStation Network" ... sort of. Actually, Yoshida safely says the decision was really about budget and how the game fit into their publishing portfolio, but with the aforementioned focus on the PlayStation Network and games that utilize it (like LittleBigPlanet), Yoshida conceded that a lack of online content in Eight Days "was part of the consideration." See, that was a tough call but we made it through together. We feel closer already.
Reader Comments (18)
Posted: Jun 16th 2008 7:51PM The Punisher said
You'd think they'd just release whatever levels they had finished over PSN for like $5 or something just so people could have tried this game out. All that coding gone to waste.
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Posted: Jun 16th 2008 7:53PM (Unverified) said
The reason this game was canceled was due to insurance issues.
The game would have kick nards so hard that people head would have exploded upon playing.
Sony didn't want that blood on their hands. The article above is mearly propaganda.
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The game would have kick nards so hard that people head would have exploded upon playing.
Sony didn't want that blood on their hands. The article above is mearly propaganda.
Posted: Jun 16th 2008 8:01PM (Unverified) said
funny, cause lack of PSN functionality dind't stop uncharted or ratchet from being released.
I figured the biggestobstacle to 8 days was the fcatthatit wasn't real.
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I figured the biggestobstacle to 8 days was the fcatthatit wasn't real.
Posted: Jun 16th 2008 8:27PM (Unverified) said
Well, thing is, they are different studios, Eight Days and The Getaway were being developed by Sony's London Studio (The Getaway was developed by Team SOHO, part of London Studio)
Naughty Dog is owned by Sony but not part of their own studios, and Insomniac is an independent developer (there are rumors about Sony owning shares, but nothing confirmed)
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Naughty Dog is owned by Sony but not part of their own studios, and Insomniac is an independent developer (there are rumors about Sony owning shares, but nothing confirmed)
Posted: Jun 16th 2008 8:17PM (Unverified) said
why does my picture wont change!!!!!! i'm tired of seeing mario!
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Posted: Jun 16th 2008 8:28PM (Unverified) said
lack of PSN uses gets a First Party game canceled??
sounds fishy to me.........its quite a bit of games that dont Use the PSN
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sounds fishy to me.........its quite a bit of games that dont Use the PSN
Posted: Jun 16th 2008 9:46PM AoE said
read past the headline and you might be surprised Aggie. Here, this bit:
"Actually, Yoshida safely says the decision was really about budget and how the game fit into their publishing portfolio"
Online was a factor but not the beginning and end of why it got canceled.
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"Actually, Yoshida safely says the decision was really about budget and how the game fit into their publishing portfolio"
Online was a factor but not the beginning and end of why it got canceled.
Posted: Jun 16th 2008 11:31PM (Unverified) said
oh yea I saw that AoE......just that being a factor is a dumb reason.......all they had to say was budget reasons.......
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Posted: Jun 16th 2008 8:42PM (Unverified) said
I would respect this guy a lot more if he just said something like this:
"The games were shit, so I cancelled them".
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"The games were shit, so I cancelled them".
Posted: Jun 16th 2008 9:37PM (Unverified) said
The game had been in development for over 2 years, I highly doubt it would be cancelled just because it didn't have an online component. This new guy has seen that the games are shit and probably going nowhere fast, cancelled them and moved the teams onto other projects (probably to work forever on the infinitely more profitable Singstar and Eyetoy franchises). SCE London is Sonys single biggest studio so I'm not expecting them to close down but I wouldn't be surprised to see some staff moving on.
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Posted: Jun 16th 2008 9:47PM AoE said
Right, but his shareholders wouldn't respect that so much I bet. And then there's all the developers who work for him, I doubt it's terribly good for company morale if the head cheese is telling the press his employees make shitty games so he has to cancel them.
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Posted: Jun 16th 2008 9:50PM (Unverified) said
I apologise for not fully considering the shareholder and employee morale perspectives when I wrote my joking comment.
Won't happen again chief.
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Won't happen again chief.
Posted: Jun 17th 2008 1:21AM Paulmichael said
I hope what was made gets released, either for free or for really, really cheap. It was in development for a while so I would like to play what was there, at least...
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Posted: Jun 17th 2008 4:24AM (Unverified) said
this online phobia will finish soon or later, is it so hard to understand that some people prefer a more singleplayer introspective experience?
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Posted: Jun 17th 2008 4:31AM barnolde said
This is stupid as hell because I'm sure those games would have been incredible, but I can see the "logic" behind their reasoning. People think that games are gimped for NOT having online, which may be true in some senses, but for a lot of them, the online mode is a HINDRANCE.
Nobody plays games like Stranglehold, The Darkness or Condemned 2 online and I'm sure all of those games would have been more fun had the already established developers focused SOLEY on single player as Psi-Ops, Riddick and Condemned 1 were all excellent titles, with Riddick being particularly awesome.
If a game like Uncharted was online, I'm confident it wouldn't have been as good as it was. Some developers do an excellent mix as seen by Halo 3, MGS4 or GTAIV.
To summarize;
'excellent offline + no online' is better than 'ok offline + ok online'
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Nobody plays games like Stranglehold, The Darkness or Condemned 2 online and I'm sure all of those games would have been more fun had the already established developers focused SOLEY on single player as Psi-Ops, Riddick and Condemned 1 were all excellent titles, with Riddick being particularly awesome.
If a game like Uncharted was online, I'm confident it wouldn't have been as good as it was. Some developers do an excellent mix as seen by Halo 3, MGS4 or GTAIV.
To summarize;
'excellent offline + no online' is better than 'ok offline + ok online'
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