It’s partially that, and it’s partially “Sony’s acquisitions aren’t necessarily getting them things they didn’t already have” because generally they’re acquiring long-standing partners, like Housemarque and Bluepoint. An acquisition like Arcsystem Works would be similar - ASW has been making PS/PC products for a while now. That said, an acquisition can help the studio invest further into themselves and help them focus even more on the platform. For instance, Insomniac’s output post-acquisition is notably stronger than pre-acquisition, in my opinion. Similarly, I expect a bigger step up from Housemarque and Bluepoint’s next projects.
Unfortunately, in the case of Microsoft’s acquisitions, they’ve honored previous contracts, so we mostly haven’t seen what those studios can do when they focus on only one platform. Hopefully we start to see that in 2022 with Redfall and Starfield. BGS games are notoriously buggy and lacking in polish, and ideally by focusing on Xbox/PC, Starfield will launch in a much more refined state and change that notion.
Two of the more visually impressive games out on consoles today, with raytracing support, both in the span of one year, with two more games due out in 2023 and 2024, and a rumored MP project, too. People have been saying “Insomniac is carrying the PS5” for a reason.
Safe to say Insomniac has stepped up their output.
All of which was in work prior to acquisition. I think Insomniac is doing extremely impressive work, but I’m not so sure things have changed significantly as a result of the acquisition.
Insomniac was purchased in late 2019. Miles, Ratchet, and Spiderman 2 were already in work.
Agreed. Insomniac Games has carried PlayStation 5 like The Coalition has carried Xbox One/Series X since 2016 with Gears 4, Gears 5 and Hivebusters.
Insomniac released Ratchet & Clank 2016 and Spider Man 2018 for PS4 and then released Miles Morales for PS5/PS4 and Rift Apart for PS5. Right now, I would say it’s equal when compared to PS4 but with Spider Man 2 scheduled for Fall 2023 and Wolverine scheduled for Fall 2024, they would have released 4 games in four years while all of Sony’s other studios would be between 0 and at best 2 games if they’re lucky.
This doesn’t include any unannounced games from Insomniac as I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Rivet spin off game that’s the size of Miles Morales or the return of Resistance. Both would just be icing on the cake.
Insomniac isn’t the best Sony studio but they have become my favorite in such a short period of time. They’re extremely efficient while maintaining their high quality level. Freaking love Insomniac!!!
This doesn’t matter because all three were still funded and published by Sony. This is no different than Forza Horizon 4 which was already in development prior to Playground being acquired by Microsoft. Redfall, Starfield and others were all in development before being acquired by Microsoft but yet, they still count because when they get released, it will still be because of Microsoft.
Not saying it doesn’t count, I just don’t think it counts as to how the acquisition has changed the studio. I don’t think there is any evidence that Insomniac is doing something different than they were in 2019, when they also had AAA games funded by Sony.
True but it does change two things - Sony no longer has to be concerned about Insomniac signing a contract with another publisher for a game or that some other publisher could come out of nowhere and acquire them. Plus, under Sony, I believe that Insomniac will be even better and more efficient than they already are which if that happens, already makes the acquisition an even bigger steal.
They might become even more efficient. Just seems like a stretch to me for someone to suggest that Insomniac has turned a corner post acquisition and that we could see similar from Housemarque and Bluepoint. Insomniac just came off of Spiderman right before this acquisition lol.
It’s not that they turned a corner, it’s just that being a Sony first party studio will make them overall better and in turn, allow them to make even better games. Similar to the studios that Microsoft acquired. Huge difference between working on contracted games compared to being in-house where you don’t really have to give anything a second thought except for the game itself.
I’m more interested to see if it just happened to be a timing piece.
Insomniac has been a multi-team studio for a while now. It kinda looks like we’ll be waiting 2-3 years for them to release another game.
Like they’re definitely efficient, but I think people are mistaking “Man they’re super fast!” when it’s more so “They just released two games next to each other. Won’t be seeing from them for a while!”
Meh, the entire internet always cheers on Sony and props them up beyond reason, we don’t need to placate them here. MS now has almost twice as many studios and some long term killer IP’s. Nothing Sony has done as far as accusations go has really expanded anything that Sony wasn’t already doing.
Forspoken is not a Sony game, anyway their acquisitions are clearly targeted to pc ports, vr stuff and better overall internal capacity, nothing which augments substantially their output.
Sure, it’s not first-party, but it is a timed console exclusive just like Deathloop, and therefore it is a game that will not be available on Xbox, so it bears mentioning.
When your strategy is releasing 2 or 3 10-20 hours AAA games a year, try to sign some excusivity deals and be done with it, it’s not going to get you far right now. You have to pump up those numbers !
True and I agree but Insomniac’s average is around an 85 or something. Sure, they have a few 60’s like Fuze and Song of the Deep but that was freaking EA and GameStop. I mean, give me a break. The only games that were under an 80 were two R&C games - one was 70 and one was 76 which isn’t bad at all. Just not as great as their other games.
To each their own but thus far for me, Insomniac has been killing it. Ratchet 2016 - 8.5/10, Spider Man 2018 - 9.0/10, Miles - 9.0/10 and Rift Apart - 9.0/10. I have more confidence in Insomniac than I do any of Sony’s other studios because while the others may score higher, Insomniac gives me more 85+ games on an extremely efficient and consistent basis.
