Studio liverpool no more.

[Ardius]

Some insight from a former employee.


http://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2013/01/07/ex-wipeout-dev-says-future-instalments-unlikely

You don't really need someone to tell you this...look at what Sony have done with the rest of the Psygnosis titles.

Many of us used to question all the time why Sony didn't make a proper retail version of Wipeout for the PS3 because it would have sold like hotcakes.

Not to mention new versions of Destruction Derby or Colony Wars (or G-Police!) would have sold pretty well too. Destruction Derby in particular would have been a much better franchise to push than Motorstorm (imo).
Not to mention Sony's dis-use of the F1 license 2007-2009. Again, one simple game to make and update would have sold very well (as F1:CE did!) for the PS3.

But Sony would rather push new titles that make use of their new technology or software features. They care very little for keeping old brands going..or rather they cared very little for the titles and the Dev studio at Liverpool.

The ex-SCE Liverpool devs have at least set up a new studio as per the norm in the games industry:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21177604

Maybe I'll end up there one day

 

[HKS racer]

Yep, Sony is controlled by stupid people, Psygnosis was one of my favourite franchises.

I remember...
Rollcage, omg Rollacage, one of the top 3 arcade racing games of all times.

on PS3
Wipeout HD = killer application.
F1 CE = killer application.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_application

 

[ussr]

I would say thats true. Sony don't care for old core playstation titles like wipeout.

There is more examples, Ridge Racer for Vita is clone of RR7 for ps3 and it was made in such rush that final game had only 3 race tracks and 5 cars, rest of the final game you have to buy it from psn.

Crash Bandicoot was exchanged to Uncharted series. Old for new. Colin McRae Rally exchanged for Dirt, now i know that this might look like developers choice to create something new in place of old and Sony did not have any thing to do with it but still if Sony didn't demand it. Then Developers like Studio Liverpool, Namco, and Naughty Dog had their hands free.

But still, KILL WIPEOUT ???? !!!! What The HELL?

 

[Ardius]

Namco and Naughty Dog do their own thing. Naughty Dog have a habit of making 3 main titles for their game series and then moving on.

I suspect Sony are not completely stupid and they might attempt to resurrect Wipeout for the PS4. But as was said by that former employee, its unlikely. Even 2048 was a bit of a stretch (they had to hire back in quite a few people for that).

There was rumblings of a shift for Sony towards India when I left and it may be that SCE may slowly close its operations in the UK. (I seem to remember hearing that SCE has recently shut and sold their London HQ?)
It will be a very sad day when the entire SCE Liverpool operation closes as there are so many of us in the industry who worked there. The bulk of SCE's QA and Localisation was and is still done there but its cheaper to hire more and more contractors in other countries.

 

[HKS racer]

I would say thats true. Sony don't care for old core playstation titles like wipeout.

There is more examples, Ridge Racer for Vita is clone of RR7 for ps3 and it was made in such rush that final game had only 3 race tracks and 5 cars, rest of the final game you have to buy it from psn.

Crash Bandicoot was exchanged to Uncharted series. Old for new. Colin McRae Rally exchanged for Dirt, now i know that this might look like developers choice to create something new in place of old and Sony did not have any thing to do with it but still if Sony didn't demand it. Then Developers like Studio Liverpool, Namco, and Naughty Dog had their hands free.

But still, KILL WIPEOUT ???? !!!! What The HELL?

You know, some Sony s*** heads studied marketing, you know, the kind of people thinking killing old brands/game studios for new ones automatically means better products and better sales...

..poor idiots.

 

[G.T.Ace]

I would say thats true. Sony don't care for old core playstation titles like wipeout.

There is more examples, Ridge Racer for Vita is clone of RR7 for ps3 and it was made in such rush that final game had only 3 race tracks and 5 cars, rest of the final game you have to buy it from psn.

Crash Bandicoot was exchanged to Uncharted series. Old for new. Colin McRae Rally exchanged for Dirt, now i know that this might look like developers choice to create something new in place of old and Sony did not have any thing to do with it but still if Sony didn't demand it. Then Developers like Studio Liverpool, Namco, and Naughty Dog had their hands free.

But still, KILL WIPEOUT ???? !!!! What The HELL?

I think you have no idea what you're talking about.
Ridge Racer isn't a Sony game, Sony doesn't even publish these titles. Same for the Colin McRae series, like you wrote yourself. Crash Bandicoot wasn't exchanged for Uncharted. Naughty Dog developed the Jak and Daxter titles after Crash Bandicoot and while I am still a huge Crash Bandicoot fan, I'm glad they developed new IPs instead of going the Nintendo-Route (ie putting the same characters like Mario in almost every single game since 30 years).

Also, they didn't kill WipEout, they closed Studio Liverpool and while I think this is sad, it was most likely a needed business decision.

WipEout doesn't even have to be dead, it's possible that Evolution Studios will pick it up.

 

[Ardius]

WipEout doesn't even have to be dead, it's possible that Evolution Studios will pick it up.

Just as long as it isn't a mess like Motorstorm Apocalypse....

 

[G.T.Ace]

Apocalypse wasn't a mess (career mode and cutscenes aside...), it's a friggin' awesome title especially for splitscreen racing, something most developers didn't care about this gen. Have to admit that I liked Pacific Rift more though, simply because of the off-road focus. Apocalypse was great feature and tech wise, the gamemode designer alone is pretty powerful and the stuff going on on-screen is crazy.

 

[HKS racer]

F1 CE pwn F1 by Codies all day and night.

WipEout doesn't even have to be dead, it's possible that Evolution Studios will pick it up.

The cool thing about WipEout is it always have been a tech demonstration of what the console is capable of... are the new studios capable to do that?

 

[G.T.Ace]

Simple question, simple answer: Yes.

 

[Ardius]

Apocalypse wasn't a mess (career mode and cutscenes aside...), it's a friggin' awesome title especially for splitscreen racing, something most developers didn't care about this gen. Have to admit that I liked Pacific Rift more though, simply because of the off-road focus. Apocalypse was great feature and tech wise, the gamemode designer alone is pretty powerful and the stuff going on on-screen is crazy.

Trust me, it was a mess behind the scenes.

The game mode maker used to be far more awesome, it used to have the ability to make completely unique rules (such as making bizarre modes like last person to cross the finish line wins or everyone explodes after 2 minutes ).

The problem was it was full of bugs and very unstable. So they took out a lot and stripped it down to a very limited editor.

Probably the most infuriating racing game to play at first as well with the BS physics and collision detection. It actually got more fun after playing it a while simply because you learn where all the buggy bits of scenery are and how to avoid crashing out thanks to a tiny piece of debris.

Not to mention the irrelevant and waste of a time single player campaign with lazy cutscenes, un-inspiring soundtrack poor track designs....

What used to be nice in the old Motorstorms was that they featured tracks with different routes, so trucks and bikes could go their own unique routes. In Apocalypse there was none of this, so there is very little advantage from using a bike.

I will give it that it was fun game deep down. A competitive 16 player race in multiplayer was pretty fun.
But the game was riddled with problems throughout development and it suffered from quite lazy game design. A bit of a polish would have taken it a long way. I consider it a poor joke that this game is even thought of as "AAA".

 

[G.T.Ace]

The problem was it was full of bugs and very unstable. So they took out a lot and stripped it down to a very limited editor.

That very limited editor is still far more advanced than what most other games offer.

Probably the most infuriating racing game to play at first as well with the BS physics and collision detection. It actually got more fun after playing it a while simply because you learn where all the buggy bits of scenery are and how to avoid crashing out thanks to a tiny piece of debris.

I never had an issue with the physics and the debris part is what makes MotorStorm, MotorStorm.

Not to mention the irrelevant and waste of a time single player campaign with lazy cutscenes, un-inspiring soundtrack poor track designs....

They seriously made some steps back from the first two games with the campaign.
I miss the festival atmosphere and live-music, no doubt.

What used to be nice in the old Motorstorms was that they featured tracks with different routes, so trucks and bikes could go their own unique routes. In Apocalypse there was none of this, so there is very little advantage from using a bike.

It's still there but not how it should've been, true.

I will give it that it was fun game deep down. A competitive 16 player race in multiplayer was pretty fun.
But the game was riddled with problems throughout development and it suffered from quite lazy game design. A bit of a polish would have taken it a long way. I consider it a poor joke that this game is even thought of as "AAA".

I measure a game's quality with its fun and I had tons of fun with it and still have.
Triple-A is an overstatement indeed, yes.

 

[V12Engine]

WipEout doesn't even have to be dead, it's possible that Evolution Studios will pick it up.

Wipeout is dead since Fusion appear on PS2 and then Pure follow this new path. Since flight physics changed which isn't even flight anymore game got to be worse for some gamers.

But this new physics introduced new features like Zone Mode which is rewarding i guess because i like it a lot 👍 And barrel rolls too, this however could be implemented in old 2097 / wip3out physics as well i think.

 

[G.T.Ace]

How can you say it's dead and at the same time enjoy it? Yes, the franchise has changed over time, so what? You can't add the same physics engine over three console generations, it would get stale.

 

[V12Engine]

The engine that was responsible for both 2097 / wip3out flight physics was changed/replaced to new one. This helps to implement faster speeds and new features like Zone mode. Now this is only one thing that i liked in wipeout Fusion. The only thing blasting my mind was speed getting faster and faster. That was, well still is great. But this is only one thing that i like it.

I still prefer much harder flight physics that was in 2097 / XL i hope you understand now. That's why i wrote wipeout is dead since Fusion, because i think that flying thing was definition of wiepout. Since it was changed in Fusion, what we end up with, really?

Answer i wipeout pod racer this is very similar.

 

[HKS racer]

Answer i wipeout pod racer this is very similar.

No it's not.

 

[MeanElf]

I think you're pushing the analogy a bit too much there V12. Sure Fusion was more open track style in places but Pod Racer was just jerky and pure arcade in its delivery - you can see it in the vid. Also, at +/-50 seconds when the pod racer clips an outcrop - in Fusion or any Wipeout title since you would have bounced upwards and been punished for sloppy driving.

 

[Ddrizle]

Firesprite - A new game development studio with a history of developing quality titles spanning two decades

"At the start we looked back at the games we delivered over the past 20 years. Our journey goes back to Psygnosis and through to Studio Liverpool. Individuals on the team have worked on games that shaped the industry including titles for hardware launches that span PS1, PS2, PSP, PS3 and PSVita. The next step of that journey is Firesprite" says Managing Director Graeme Ankers.

Firesprite was born when the Management and Creative Leads of Studio Liverpool came together with a shared vision of creating a new game studio. The founder team alone has 80+ years of experience and has worked on games such as Shadow of the Beast, Lemmings, Rollcage, Colony Wars, Killzone, Motorstorm, F1, and WipEout.

"Firesprite has just completed its first work collaborating with SCE Japan Studio on The Playroom for PS4. Using our past experience we could support Japan Studio in realising the artistic vision of the project. We're very proud and honoured to have been part of such an exciting project" says Art Director Lee Carus.

firesprite.com