Sony acquire Insomniac Games

SerialCeler wrote:It's good for Sony and and good for Insomniac, of course. But it got me thinking.

Can anyone think of an example where a developer was bought by a major publisher and went on to produce better games than it had previously?

I couldn't think of any off the top of my head.

Rare's golden era as a company was under Nintendo's investment (1994 to 2002) but that was never full ownership-an initial stake of 25% from Nintendo, before increasing to 49%.

You could also argue Nintendo's acquisition of Monolith Soft has been a big benefit to them too, with XC, XC-X and XC2 all being well received, not to mention their input on BOTW and the expansion of the company's resources.

Tomous wrote:

SerialCeler wrote:It's good for Sony and and good for Insomniac, of course. But it got me thinking.

Can anyone think of an example where a developer was bought by a major publisher and went on to produce better games than it had previously?

I couldn't think of any off the top of my head.

Rare's golden era as a company was under Nintendo's investment (1994 to 2002) but that was never full ownership-an initial stake of 25% from Nintendo, before increasing to 49%.

You could also argue Nintendo's acquisition of Monolith Soft has been a big benefit to them too, with XC, XC-X and XC2 all being well received, not to mention their input on BOTW and the expansion of the company's resources.

Rare added huge diversity to their portfolio. Nintendo system's after Rare haven't really been the same at all sadly.

But then other than Sea of Thieves ( cannot wait to play that next month ) Rare haven't really been much cop to Microsoft. I love the new Ninja Theory location in Cambridge though, the plans for the building look absolutely gorgeous and will modernise the area it's in.

suzzopher wrote:

Tomous wrote:

SerialCeler wrote:It's good for Sony and and good for Insomniac, of course. But it got me thinking.

Can anyone think of an example where a developer was bought by a major publisher and went on to produce better games than it had previously?

I couldn't think of any off the top of my head.

Rare's golden era as a company was under Nintendo's investment (1994 to 2002) but that was never full ownership-an initial stake of 25% from Nintendo, before increasing to 49%.

You could also argue Nintendo's acquisition of Monolith Soft has been a big benefit to them too, with XC, XC-X and XC2 all being well received, not to mention their input on BOTW and the expansion of the company's resources.

Rare added huge diversity to their portfolio. Nintendo system's after Rare haven't really been the same at all sadly.

But then other than Sea of Thieves ( cannot wait to play that next month ) Rare haven't really been much cop to Microsoft. I love the new Ninja Theory location in Cambridge though, the plans for the building look absolutely gorgeous and will modernise the area it's in.

Yeah, having a Western studio with the output Rare rate hit was a huge benefit in the N64 era.

Now, in terms of major Western Studios they only really have Retro and Next Level Games (who I don't think they own but have an exclusive deal with) and the former has been AWOL for 6 years.

I understand we're not in the N64 era and games take more resources to make so matching Rare's output is impossible but they really could do with investing in some more Western studios.

Tomous wrote:

suzzopher wrote:

Tomous wrote:

SerialCeler wrote:It's good for Sony and and good for Insomniac, of course. But it got me thinking.

Can anyone think of an example where a developer was bought by a major publisher and went on to produce better games than it had previously?

I couldn't think of any off the top of my head.

Rare's golden era as a company was under Nintendo's investment (1994 to 2002) but that was never full ownership-an initial stake of 25% from Nintendo, before increasing to 49%.

You could also argue Nintendo's acquisition of Monolith Soft has been a big benefit to them too, with XC, XC-X and XC2 all being well received, not to mention their input on BOTW and the expansion of the company's resources.

Rare added huge diversity to their portfolio. Nintendo system's after Rare haven't really been the same at all sadly.

But then other than Sea of Thieves ( cannot wait to play that next month ) Rare haven't really been much cop to Microsoft. I love the new Ninja Theory location in Cambridge though, the plans for the building look absolutely gorgeous and will modernise the area it's in.

Yeah, having a Western studio with the output Rare rate hit was a huge benefit in the N64 era.

Now, in terms of major Western Studios they only really have Retro and Next Level Games (who I don't think they own but have an exclusive deal with) and the former has been AWOL for 6 years.

I understand we're not in the N64 era and games take more resources to make so matching Rare's output is impossible but they really could do with investing in some more Western studios.

I was thinking that when I read this news last night. Nintendo need to add some western studios to work on original IP for them. NLG and Retro will be working on existing IP for sure, but they need to diversify the line up, especially when PS5 and the next Xbox are out. They wouldn't be able to have any of the games from those systems on the current Switch.

At the same time though Sony and Microsoft should invest in Japanese studios.

suzzopher wrote:Who's Ninja?

Is Sunset Overdrive on Game Pass? I am getting an Xbone next month so of course I bet Sony pulls it from there just to spite me

Yup.

Photek wrote:

suzzopher wrote:Who's Ninja?

Is Sunset Overdrive on Game Pass? I am getting an Xbone next month so of course I bet Sony pulls it from there just to spite me

Yup.

It best still be there in three weeks, now Sony own the IP

I think it's time for Sony to copy Microsoft and make a Game Pass system.
I'd 100% jump in at launch.

Peter Crisp wrote:I think it's time for Sony to copy Microsoft and make a Game Pass system.
I'd 100% jump in at launch.

PS Now? You can download PS4 games. They need to put the new games out on it though and drop the price.

Peter Crisp wrote:I think it's time for Sony to copy Microsoft and make a Game Pass system.
I'd 100% jump in at launch.

...PlayStation Now?

PS Now is terrible.
I don't want to stream stuff I want to be able to download stuff and then not worry about having a stable connection to just play a single player game.

Seriously, just copy Microsoft as Game Pass is pretty much perfect.

It may or may not be evident that I've never used or looked into PS Now because it has a rubbish name .

You can download from PS Now but that’s limited to PS4 games.

Wedgie wrote:You can download from PS Now but that’s limited to PS4 games.

See, I told you it was rubbish .
Worst service ever and yes that does include the service at Little Chef.

Microsoft have done a way better job with Game Pass in promoting it I think. The simple answer of "yes it's on game pass" is way easier than PS Now only having some games - but both strategies make sense to me.

Must admit, I much prefer the idea of Game Pass over Now.

Now is unreliable as heck.

I thought PSNow allowed you to download PS4 and PS2 games, but not PS3?

PSNow is actually pretty similar to GamePass and the catalogue is huge, but the games are older, and you have the option of streaming or downloading (though there's various caveats here which make it feel unfinished) but Sony has done a really poor job advertising it and it's not as good value for money (£12.99 a month) nor do they appear to run as many discount promotions.

Peter Crisp wrote:PS Now is terrible.
I don't want to stream stuff I want to be able to download stuff and then not worry about having a stable connection to just play a single player game.

Seriously, just copy Microsoft as Game Pass is pretty much perfect.

It may or may not be evident that I've never used or looked into PS Now because it has a rubbish name .

I've had about 2 or 3 trials of PlayStation Now. The ideal is a locally run game but for the most part on my old 8Mb connection it ran great for me that's why I don't think Google Stadia is make believe. But the big benefit of streaming games is you can relatively instantly, about 1 minute - 1.5 minutes, try a new game, whatever takes your fancy, without having to wait for it to download. I'm sure with time Microsoft will add that to Game Pass.

Venom wrote:But the big benefit of streaming games is you can relatively instantly, about 1 minute - 1.5 minutes, try a new game, whatever takes your fancy, without having to wait for it to download. I'm sure with time Microsoft will add that to Game Pass.

That's a good point and not one I had thought of.

I'd always like the option of downloading the games, my connection can be poor sometimes, but just using streaming as a sort of demo is a good idea.

I appreciate this acquisition doesn't really change the status quo given that Insomniac largely developed for PlayStation exclusively anyway, but I still think it's great news. Spiderman 2 is a certainty but hopefully there is resource available to also start work on a much overdue new Ratchet & Clank!

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