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Rumor: Ex-Sony Bend dev talks about Syphon Filter, new game & a ditched Uncharted

sora87

Member
That's good though, it means Naughty Dog has creative control instead of Sony just letting any studio take over an original studio's IP.

Bend needs to come up with something of their own instead of riding on the coattails of other studios.

It sounds like they've been trying to get a few new IPs green lit for a while, but pitching them on the Vita means they had no chance anyway
 

MattyG

Banned
Infamous Vita existed at one point but got canned? And there was going to be a Golden Abyss sequel too?

SON OF A BIIIIIIIIITCH.
 
It sounds like they've been trying to get a few new IPs green lit for a while, but pitching them on the Vita means they had no chance anyway
They need to pitch them for the PS4 while Sony still has the appetite for new IPs early in the PS4 life cycle.

The vita just can't seem to sell games, while I understand Bend wanted to take advantage of their vita engine, they should have targeted the PS4 in the first place.
 

autoduelist

Member
They need to pitch them for the PS4 while Sony still has the appetite for new IPs early in the PS4 life cycle.

The vita just can't seem to sell games, while I understand Bend wanted to take advantage of their vita engine, they should have targeted the PS4 in the first place.

Sony greenlight plenty of new IPs very late in the ps3's life.
 

RK128

Member
I understand WHY Sony scrapped the games (as it's from a lot of issues; it is expensive to make Vita games, no one bought Vita software and they need the first party support on PS4) but it still sucks seeing a great studio that had a really fun game for the Vita just....not make more Vita games :l.

Regarding SSM's game, it sounded impressive and coming from the minds behind God of War 3 (one of my favorite PS3 games), I couldn't help be be excited for it :D....so when it was stated it got canned, that was a bit sad :(.
 
Sony greenlight plenty of new IPs very late in the ps3's life.
The PS3 was thriving towards the end of its lifespan, the vita not so much, Bend was essentially sending a game out to die if released on the vita, for the sole purpose of making a game on their existing vita game engine, not to mention Bend is basically a B studio, it doesn't make sense.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
I recall it was always upper management, demographic, genre saturation kinda crap. Like, ‘someone is already making a game something along those lines that would come out 5mo prior to your GM date’, or ‘we’ve had too many games of that sort that didn’t sell well enough’, or projections for that kind of blah blah blah…
This sounds like good management to me. Especially if the studio in question is Bend and they haven't really proven they can make the best of a particular genre yet.

But the next sentence says something else entirely.
Also, kind of like the complaints about Hollywood only making generic formula action hits because they make money, rather than take a risk on something different that might not make money.
Same thing exists in games, obviously.
So which is it?
 
I see this is the new thread to jump to conclusions. Also if you are going to pose as an insider to a studio you may want to get the details even non insiders can fact check right. Unit 13 was done on the engine Socom 4 was made with and on a relatively short schedule at that.
 
This sounds like good management to me. Especially if the studio in question is Bend and they haven't really proven they can make the best of a particular genre yet.

But the next sentence says something else entirely.

So which is it?

What I don't understand is why Bend has to eek out a living diluting other studios' IPs. It's good that ND feels it's important to protect its own creation from franchise fatigue. The last thing I want is have Bend try to mooch off of TLOU.
 

MattyG

Banned
I see this is the new thread to jump to conclusions. Also if you are going to pose as an insider to a studio you may want to get the details even non insiders can fact check right. Unit 13 was done on the engine Socom 4 was made with and on a relatively short schedule at that.
Yeah, I thought that bit sounded off.

Edit: Apparently not? Huh.
 

Redhood

Member
I see this is the new thread to jump to conclusions. Also if you are going to pose as an insider to a studio you may want to get the details even non insiders can fact check right. Unit 13 was done on the engine Socom 4 was made with and on a relatively short schedule at that.

This is where you are wrong. The game does use uncharted engine. I thought it was a well known fact.

16344501702_3bce0dd881_z.jpg

Taken from Unit13 credits.
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
Pretty upsetting about all the vita stuff, especially the uncharted. I thought what they put together was great. That comment about a lot of the burnout is a little concerning. Their title is one of my most anticipated in terms of reveal so I'm really hoping it's something special. I'm pretty sure Shinobi has somewhat of an in with Bend, maybe he can shed some light on it.
 
Don't believe that about Syphon Filter,


If thrue though how about if the intention was to end it you do it in a definitive way and not leave people hanging for 8 years.
 

jrDev

Member
Hmm, good to know Naughty Dog got a lot of pull and they can tell Sony whatever they want to do and get it. Best thing to come out of this news.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
I can't really figure why they would have had such a hard time making a successful pitch for a Vita game. Sony wasn't exactly in the position to turn down decent content for that platform given how little else was on offer for it.
 

Xeteh

Member
I can't really figure why they would have had such a hard time making a successful pitch for a Vita game. Sony wasn't exactly in the position to turn down decent content for that platform given how little else was on offer for it.

Why put in a lot of money for an original title when you can't be sure of the sales numbers when you can get a ton of indie games from PC (or wherever) ported over for far less money?

Being super hyped about a concept/idea for a game and then having the people in control of the money say "nah" seems super depressing.
 
Don't believe that about Syphon Filter,


If thrue though how about if the intention was to end it you do it in a definitive way and not leave people hanging for 8 years.

I was always under impression that they're going to kill Syphon Filter IP, but then make a new spiritual successor IP, new main character, but set in the same universe as SF. :(
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
Why put in a lot of money for an original title when you can't be sure of the sales numbers when you can get a ton of indie games from PC (or wherever) ported over for far less money?
Because they're still paying to keep this studio in business and have absolutely nothing to show for it for probably another year or two, despite what sounded like at least a half dozen perfectly viable game concepts being tossed around. No reason it has to be "a lot" of money. Bend is a smaller studio, they'd be perfect for resurrecting the kind of mid-tier game that sort of started to go overlooked in the last gen. Or take on a few projects with the kind of scope that indies target, but with the resources of a larger team to bang them out more quickly.
 
I love Syphon Filter but I respect Garvin's decision, If he got tired of making them then I'd rather Bend not churn them out if it isn't something they wouldn't be interested in making. My copies of SF2, DM and LS on PSP remain replayed. I also wouldn't have said no to an Infamous Vita game as that genre is severely underrepresented on Vita. Really a shame that Bend couldn't cop any greenlights for the Vita, they're very talented portable developers.
 

Spiegel

Member
new ip on ps4 instead of an uncharted or an infamous clone on the vita? sounds like a no brainer

Uncharted or Infamous Vita would have been released by now. It's been more than 3 years since Bend finished Golden Abyss.

If Naughty Dog didn't kill the next Uncharted we probably would have gotten it late 2013/early 2014. Basically the time when Bend started working on the PS4 game.
 
I am surprised by how much pull Naughty Dog seem to have on the decision for a new Uncharted. Also I'm glad they can recognize the danger of over exposing their games something Ubisoft should learn.
 
So they constantly failed to come up with an original idea for a game. Another Uncharted and inFamous, on a handheld, by a different dev to boot, yawn. It's sad they tried so hard to give us another entries into these series or pitching ideas for uninspired games that played like those instead of doing their own thing, though we don't know how much of this is bullshit or not. Hope it's all bullshit.
 

Kyoufu

Member
Can't say that I'm upset about a new PS4 IP in development over spinoffs that were destined to fail on a zombie platform.
 

Ridley327

Member
What a cruel world we living in where Vita games gets canned left and right

Western ones, at least.

It should be obvious at this point that the HD collection ports are all that Sony is willing to do at this point from the western perspective, and given the spotty quality, they don't even care that much about them.
 

nampad

Member
*puts ND on shit list*
if true.

So disappointing that Bend didn't made another Vita game and as he mentioned, they had a lot of tech already set up.
 
Lol wow. I'll admit I was wrong there. Game straight up looks like Socom 4, down to the character models and camera.

An engine has almost nothing to do with how mechanical stuff like that works - especially if it's a good engine.

Stuff like animations and camera placement is all about how a game is designed.

You're better off GUESSING what engines are shared by the graphical details. UE3 was always recognisable for having shadows that were constant and never related to a light source. They were just there. In addition to that, UE3 on PS3 was identifiable by horrible jaggies and bad texture streaming.

So, really an engine has to be pretty distinctive
ly bad or good
, to be recognisable. It's not really an easy thing to guess, especially since graphical solutions are all kind of variations on the same idea. Nothing looks hugely different anymore.
 

Spiegel

Member
Western ones, at least.

It should be obvious at this point that the HD collection ports are all that Sony is willing to do at this point from the western perspective, and given the spotty quality, they don't even care that much about them.

Yeah.

If Bend, one of the few first party studios who wanted to stay handheld focused, who had an impressive Vita engine up and running and who had last released a game 3 years ago had to move to PS4, there's zero hope for a new internal first party Vita game.
 
An engine has almost nothing to do with how mechanical stuff like that works - especially if it's a good engine.

Stuff like animations and camera placement is all about how a game is designed.

You're better off GUESSING what engines are shared by the graphical details. UE3 was always recognisable for having shadows that were constant and never related to a light source. They were just there. In addition to that, UE3 on PS3 was identifiable by horrible jaggies and bad texture streaming.

So, really an engine has to be pretty distinctive
ly bad or good
, to be recognisable. It's not really an easy thing to guess, especially since graphical solutions are all kind of variations on the same idea. Nothing looks hugely different anymore.

That's the thing. Unit 13 looked just like Socom 4 in nearly every way. That's why I assumed it was the same engine.
 

joseph

Banned
syphon filter > mgs1

:p

/flee

/flee

/flee

;)

would be sad to not see another sf game but her point is valid...

despite it sitting atop stellar gameplay the IP wasn't a blockbuster
 
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