SL redundancies and the future [if any] of HD

[blackwiggle]

I don't know if you are like me and just arrive at the wipeoutzone directly at the forum pages.
But you might of missed what Rob has posted at the sites main page,I'll copy/paste it here.

Sony Computer Entertainment is poised to announce sweeping redundancies at Studio Liverpool on Friday the 29th of January 2010, with the obvious casualties being from the team that created the recently completed the WipEout HD and Fury titles.

What does this mean for the WipEout franchise long term?

Only time will tell - although it's clear that the flagship series was being mothballed for a while anyway, after a relative glut of titles since 2005's WipEout Pure.

WipEoutZone extends best wishes to everyone affected by this corporate cost-cutting maneuver.

Not the sort of news either the people at SL wanted to hear or the fans of wipeout or any other SL made game.

Personally I think it's a power play leveraged by SCEA to get more of their own way over SCEE .

[Aeroracer]

should of layed off the people that work for sony making sl staff redundant, imo they serve no useful purpose.
Also the bright spark who thought of putting adverts in my game need to get the axe too.

If a new wipeout game ever comes out it will probally be much different to what we play now.complete overhaul.made more appealing to the larger audience.

sorry to hear they have been layed off..its sad times we live in.hope they find new work soon to pay the bills.

[blackwiggle]

I see a SL staff member is online now,maybe he will comment.

[Colin Berry]

Sorry, I resigned from Sony a few weeks before Christmas and started my new job this week.

All I can do is wish the best to the hard working folks at the studio, and hope tomorrow goes well for all of them.

[Task]

They'll likely have to wait until after a certain date.
Sony puts a pretty serious gag on their people.
Unfortunate, but not much can be done about it.

[DawnFireDragoon]

it's a sad day and i wish anyone effected by this all the best.

In terms of the thread title, that must be it for HD Fury.

complete guess work here, but i would imagine if the studio is meged with another or something similar, hopefully avoiding too many redundancies, Sony would eventually want another Wipeout title, but who remains from the past teams and who is new and what their intentions are could re-shape Wipeout in a big way.

I expect it will indeed be a while before we get much info on this.

once again, all the best to anyone effected by this...

[IH8YOU]

NNNNNNNNNNooooooooooooooo!

Beyond words, though I think a lot of us saw this coming for miles...

Still. (#*$ing Sucks.

[RJ O'Connell]

I sort of expected this after the merger of Evolution Studios and Studio Liverpool and I have a strong gut feeling that this won't be the end of the changes.

That said, hopefully Nick Burcombe won't be among the layoffs. Then again no one knows aside from the corporate heads at Sony.

So I don't really know how to feel about this.

complete guess work here, but i would imagine if the studio is meged with another or something similar, hopefully avoiding too many redundancies, Sony would eventually want another Wipeout title, but who remains from the past teams and who is new and what their intentions are could re-shape Wipeout in a big way.

I know a lot of people here, not to name names, have been asking for some change in the Wipeout series. But it's way, way too early to predict the future of the series when we don't even know the future of the studio that's been in charge of developing the games since 1995.

[LOUDandPROUD]

*posted this in the other related thread, before realizing that this is the main thread for this, so reposting here.

Wow, this is depressing news. Thanks to SL/Psygnosis and I wish you all the best of luck. I may not be playing WOHD as much as I used to, but my love for it is, and always will be, strong.

Selfishly, I find myself imagining a world with no future iterations of WO and the day that the WOHD servers finally go offline. It's...unthinkable...and will effectively disconnect an entire community of gamers/friends from all over the world. That would be a sad, sad day...

I'll never forget all the amazing folks I've gotten to know, thanks to WO.

Sony =

[JJPAP]

and the day that the WOHD servers finally go offline. It's...unthinkable...and will effectively disconnect an entire community of gamers/friends from all over the world. That would be a sad, sad day...

Really agree w/ you L&P

Feel really sad (also) for all the good guys at SL

But hopefully - like Rock´n Roll - WO will never die ..... We yet have to hear if WO in some way will continue ... Not too high hopes, I must admit - BUT BUT BUT .....

Let´s all keep racing and be friends in speed

[AG-wolf]

maybe by then, people will have figured out how to crack some code and do their own online servers like someone did with Phantasy Star Online back in the day for Dreamcast... PSN games don't have a constricted network like Xbox Live, so technically if you could just tell the game to connect to a different IP when it looks for the WOHD online servers- as long as it gets the right response, maybe it would work.

[GTAce]

It almost feels like a good friend died...

I wish everyone who worked at SL and the WipEout series all the best for the future and hope HD wasnt the last game i could play from you.

Playing videogames is one of the very few things i can do due to my Spinal Muscular Atrophy and great games like WipEout helped me to get through a lot of bad times in the past. I have a lot of respect for you developers.

[Rapier Racer]

.....................

Just came back from my friends house after watching the Royal Rumble in a fairly good mood, until I logged in here and saw that on the front page.

My first thoughts were also images of the studio flashing through my mind like Stevie, Charlie and Arnaud when we got the once in a lifetime chance to see the place, I still remember all the Wipeout posters, computers and big screens everywhere. (I won't thank you Mister Hellfire for digging up those out dated pictures of me lol

Very sad to see such talented people put out of work after producing such quality and entertaining products, rest assured we all wish you the best.

What does the future hold now? I certainly hope Wipeout isn't canned whilst a piece of crap like Motorstorm lives on, no doubt the chances of that are high. Lets not forget to slap Phill Harrison whilst we're at it if I recall correctly he couldn't push Evo enough, he also couldn't NOT mention SL enough.

I'll be watching the scene closely. If it becomes apparent Wipeout is going to become WipeoutStorm Pacific Rift or indeed, gone forever then so will my support of anything with a PlayStation logo on it, never thought I'd say that. Might get some use out of my 360 besides Mass Effect 2 after all....

To borrow a line from a song, which I think sums up the way we feel towards Wipeout: Even through the darkest days, this fire burns, always.