Sony Computer Entertainment acquires Media Molecule Studios

Time travel gameplay mechanics in LBP confirmed.

 

Must be from the money saved by closing SCE Liverpool.

 

Who's next? Naughty Dog or Insomniac?

 

ND is already owned by Sony.

 

I believe the chief reason for this is they want ownership 'sackboy'
sony (and MS as well) have no 'true' recognizable gaming icon characters(*) like nintendo has.

he could be the face of sony game's

sackboy kart racing
sackboys super smash
etc

(*)kratos,drake etc dont cut it

 

Isn't Sackboy the face of unfinished software? To my knowledge, there are *still* no "Play Create Share" stats in LBP 2 years after release. And where is the web API they talked about last year?

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/21/web-based-littlebigplanet-level-sharing-portal-coming-soon/

Perhaps they should stop designing costumes for a moment and finish the game?

=)

Cheers

 

To the casual crowd (even me), I don't really care about the Play, Create, Share stats. Have not created any levels yet. I don't even know where to find the stats page.

SackBoy has inherent appeal to kids. They are too cute.

They should keep doing it if it brings in the dough. But some update on their web integration would be nice !

Even if it's stuck together with Cross Game Chat, at least we know what's going on.

 

The PS brand doesn't need it. I don't think anyone really needs them these days. Wii would do fine on its own without Mario, although Mario works for Nintendo because he engages a particular style and play dynamic. Otherwise we don't need recognisable characters to carry a platform when platforms are known for their diversity and reaching out to broader audiences.

I'd say the reason they bought MM is exactly what it says on the tin. Sony like to secure novel artists, and they like the dynamic at MM. They don't want to let that slip and have MM's spark on rival platforms, so have sewn them up with an expectation of novel creations going forward.

 

As far as I'm aware, they (Sony) already owned the LBP IP. As such, they wouldn't need the studio to use its assets in other properties.

If anything, I would guess the purchase was to strengthen their "Play Create Share" model. I would even venture a guess that the initial seeds for this accusation started back in Harrison's days. Publicly, he seemed to be a huge proponent of PCS, but despite being the head of WWS, little outside of LBP and now Modnation Racers actually came out of it.Perhaps this move is to help strengthen their PCS offerings in the future. This is all just speculation on my part, of course.

 

It's probably all of the above, but I thought SackBoy is already owned by Sony ? The execution, rapport, knowledge and relationships/trust with the consumers are all valuable. I think Sony also owns the LBP platform without acquiring MM.

[size=-2]I don't think SackBoy needs to tied with Play, Create, Share only. They can introduce more user concepts around it. Afterall, only a minority create. They definitely need to extend PCS further to keep the existing base happy, but at the same time, they can try out new stuff too.[/size]

 

Man, Sony really got a massive force of developers behind them over the years.
I must say though that it suprises me they bought another developer with the losses they're making left and right.

 

MM isn't a loss maker.

 

Why is it that they seem to buy developers but they never seem to hit the really big leagues after purchase. They have a lot of solid/great selling titles but only really one franchise in the 5M+ leagues. Naughty Dog has never made a game as big as Crash Bandicoot, essentially ever since they were bought up. Is there some kind of spark that they are missing?

 

Insomniac definitely doesn't want to be acquired based off what they've said in the past. They like their current relationship. I wonder what their doing next though because launch until 08 I guess they were top PS3 guys and now first party has raised the bar so that puts more burden on them to deliver that same level of polish and really tweak their stuff to the system's strengths.

 

Probably too nebulous to answer. Some people don't chase after sales (e.g., Not everyone aspires to make a WiiSports game), they prefer to make games they want to play; some want to chase a vision; others want to be different. Sometimes it takes a while for consumers to warm up to new concepts. Even for the CoD series, I only heard of and bought CoD4. Then there is the question of what kind of games do PS3 users want ? It's not just Sony titles, even cross platform titles too. e.g., Bayonetta sold poorly despite positive reviews.

As long as the business units make enough money and the people like what they do, and want to do more, it's a good start.

 

Sony have always said they will use their first party studios to fill gaps in their lineup (i.e. what third parties can't/won't make). Only recently have Sony needed their first party to make blockbusters (third party exclusives have been almost non-existent on PS3) and it is starting to happen with Uncharted 2 and GoW3 (which should do better than the PS2 ones due to increased hype and awareness of the series in PAL).

 

I can't personally understand a business entity as part of a publicly traded company NOT attempting to maximise profits. I suspect COD 4 became massive because it gave people what they wanted, so perhaps thats the answer. Are Sony studios making the games they want to play and not the games which the widest possible audience want to play?

Nintendo does that too, but for the most part whenever they do it they achieve a lot more success in the marketplace which is perplexing.

 

Definitely would have sounded better on another day, just not coinciding with the Infinity Ward drama...

 

There are more to maximizing profit than just saying it. Very often for a craft, you'll find that execution is the key. And in order to do well, you need to like the job first. If you consult for execs, then you'll get to see more varied issues than just "maximizing profit". You can drive a company or an industry to the ground by just "maximizing profit" (Look at US now). In short, success has no recipe.

Then everyone should be making casual games since there are more of them in this world. I think CoD4 switch to modern warfare after satisfying the WWII fans.

They took their time to understand their user base, and delivered. Timing was also right. They were unhappy in the GameCube era though. Remember that for one successful Wii product, there are probably many failed prototypes behind the scene.