Believe me, games have been trashed after more work than that.
As for keeping the community alive from our own, I couldn't agree more. That's what we do best and we'll stop at nothing to keep it going !
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Well think about this.
Sony always uses some form of Wipeout as a launch title for any new console, if they scrap 12-18 months worth of work and the studio that is producing it, it could only suggest that any planned PS4 has been shelved for the foreseeable future.
The problem Sony have to address, and is the main problem causing their financial woes, is the ridiculous pricing structure for the content being sold through the PSN.
Especially the unexplainable price disparity of the same downloadable content in different countries.
People are fed up with, are refusing to buy it full stop, this is leading to "Brand Resentment" = people feeling all Sony goods are a rip-off, so they are losing sales of their hardware as well.
The price gouging on TV's in certain countries [Australia] is both obvious and undefendable, particular popular models that are exactly the same in different countries are price inflated by more than 85% yet are source from the same place,and have a shorter distance to travel from the factory.
Plus you have the fact the the Aus $1 is buying roughly US$1.10
Price from Sony USA.
HX850
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/sto...52921666415272
HX750
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/sto...52921666415284
Price Sony Australia
HX850
http://www.sony.com.au/product/kdl-46hx850
HX750
http://www.sony.com.au/product/kdl-46hx750
It's stuff like this going on worldwide is why Sony is going down the toilet.
All easily checkable via the internet.
Do they honestly think people are going to repeatably allow themselves to be treated as fools.
The biggest electronic chain store is Australia [JB] has now stopped carrying Sony TV's
Sony doesn't always use a WipEout to launch a new console, and they certainly don't have to, either. If you think they're going to delay the PS4 because there is no WipEout, I'd recommend checking into an insane asylum. I also have absolutely no idea of what the pricing of TV's has to do with anything.
Blackwiggle - price gouging Australians (and other small markets) is par for the course, every company does it. We have a tiny market compared to the USA for example, and they'll charge what they can get away with. Sony is by no means the only company that does this.
Amplificated - his suggestion was that the studio was scrapped because the PS4 was delayed, not the other way around.
Studio Liverpool used to make other games than just Wipeout, it's just that in the last few years Sony had Studio Liverpool pretty much ONLY doing Wipeout.
When the retrenchments came around two years ago, many thought the end of Studio Liverpool was going to come pretty shortly after.
The other stuff the remaining SL staff were doing was working on refining controls for the MOVE and the first 3D game[s]
It was only when reading the job description in advert that appeared for a new position at SL that people realized that the PSP2, as it was named then, was getting closer to release.
This turned out as 2048.
It would seem some other new advancement or console was in the works, otherwise I doubt Sony would of given the go ahead for work to start on a new Wipeout.
Whatever this was seems to have been abruptly cancelled, so the Wipeout project was cancelled as well.
Since all SL eggs were in one basket so to speak, that left them without work.
Hence the closure.
I've yet to see a Sony console that hasn't seen a SL Wipeout used either as a launch title, or to showcase some new feature/ technical advancement.
PURE-Launch title, one of the first with DLC for the PSP
PULSE- first PSP with content [ship] customization
HD- First "downloadable only" game
HD3D -First PS3 3D title
2048-Vita Launch title
That's pretty much all Sony uses Wipeout for.
Hopefully it does come back. When I finish college and become a game director, I would want to bring back WipEout if that ever does get into that position. Maybe I can make it for all systems too >.> except for the PC I mean.
Not sure if those example are really relevant. PULSE and ship customization for example ... of course you expect some new features from a new title. And the ship customization wasn't such a thing to brag about (and they didn't).
As for HD which definitely wasn't the first "PSN Only" (and eventually came as retail disc too) game.
But having WipEout as a launch title is also some kind of recognition, telling how the series is associated to Sony's image.
Seeing another studio disappears is a sad thing, especially when it is one which brought our loved games to life.
But that doesn't necessarily means WipEout is over (as far as I read, SL didn't make all wipeout games ... wip3out was made by studio leeds ... so it's still possible to see the license given to another internal studio like Sony has done with the formula one license).
I also wonder how many people for the PS1 era were still in the studio. I really liked the Pure/Pulse era, but I complained a lot about not improving famous flaws of the series title after title (especially AI, collision), and I felt a need for a drastic change. Still hope it can happen.
It's too bad.
Thanks for the games you made and for the cummunauty it creates.
I am quite new with wipeout but really enjoyed the last 3 years playing HD.
Best wishes to the team's members who are unemployed, i hope you will all work on interessting projects soon.
Congrats for your work!!