Forum - View topicNEWS: Sony Shuts Down Shadow of the Colossus, Demon's Souls Remake Studio Bluepoint Games
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PilotPayback
 Posts: 141 |
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*inhales and shouts loudly*
SONY! can you just like...STOP with the lIvE sErViCe stuff? apart from helldivers 2, every other attempt has either failed (concord), got canceled (a god of war live service game, that ironically, bluepoint was working on), or has been met with disdain (the initial reaction to horizon: hunters gathering). oh and there's...whatever destiny 2 is doing... gonna be honest, the only "benefit" LiVe SeRvIcE games offer are for...i guess investors and that's about it. can't imagine being guerilla and being okay with, "hey, y'know horizon 3? that game that'll be a sequel to the critically and commercially successful zero dawn and forbidden west? well, put that on the back burner, because we've got hunters gathering to focus on!" Last edited by PilotPayback on Sat Feb 21, 2026 10:02 am; edited 2 times in total |
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mdo7
 Posts: 8262 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Just heard about this announcement and my reaction is: What the hell!!!???
  
Why shut down the studio for remastering your classic game in the time when retro-gaming has already gained popularity that has been going for the last 10-15 years? This doesn't make sense from a marketing analysis point of view. |
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varmintx
 Posts: 1331 Location: Covington, KY |
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I mean, all they did was make games people really liked. Obviously, they had to go.
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Slizardo
 Posts: 28 |
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Their Demons Souls remake was bad. I never played their Shadow of the Colossus remake but I'll assume it's bad too just by association. Honestly it doesn't sound like much of a loss if a studio churning out low-quality remakes gets shut down to focus on new titles instead. Remakes and remasters are generally lazy. |
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TheSleepyMonkey
Posts: 994 |
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>I never played their Shadow of the Colossus remake but I'll assume it's bad too just by association Yeah, because everyone knows developers only make exclusively good or exclusively bad games. Surely there is no in-between ever. |
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mdo7
Posts: 8262 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Uh, what are you talking about both Bluepoint's remake of Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls got critical acclaims. Where are you getting this information from? |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5320 |
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Sony and Microsoft's game divisions furiously competing to win the prize for total incompetence.
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Cypher997
Posts: 192 |
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The 'live service' curse of Jim Ryan and Herman Hulst continues to plague Sony's PlayStation division, nothing short of an exorcism or whatever other cleansing type of ritual will be enough to get said division out of that mess.
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 426 Location: Manchester, UK |
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I know there was some level of criticism among some of the og Demons Souls fandom about some of the re-design aesthetic choices of the remake, particularly towards enemies/bosses. As an original DS player, it never bothered me that much but I kind of got some of the points being made and it made for an interesting conversation/point of comparison. Of course, this being the internet, those criticisms were then picked up & amplified by small number of youtube shoutmen grifters to an audience of angry manchildren with the critical engagement skills of toddlers, hence the above post. If anything they've only seemed to have gotten angrier about it over time. I guess when enthusiasm & curiosity fail to maintain interest in a fandom, there's always irrational, impotent rage. Sadly it is what it is. |
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That Little Rapscallion
Posts: 151 |
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You know different people have different opinions, right? I never played any of their games myself but like just seeing the aesthetic style and knowing how remakes generally are it's completely reasonable to consider plenty of people did not like them. It's entirely fine for people to not like a game that is "critically acclaimed" - whatever that means these days. Like people can say FF7 and RE4's remake are critically acclaimed and loved. I still think they pale in comparison to the original. No amount of 'critical praise' is going to make me change my mind or invalidate my opinion.
Generally a problem with most remakes and remasters, as depicted by the following meme. 
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Soul_Punisher
Posts: 106 |
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Awesome!
Now we can get more New Live service Slop. |
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mdo7
Posts: 8262 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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You really can't make them happy, can they? I mean I think there are older version already available on PS Store and Xbox Live store and yet people still yap and complain about the remake. 
I hate to ask but don't people just have open mind to remaster and remake. What if the remake improved the original from some purist's POV. I mean I'm happy some games I grew up playing or have played in the past got a remake. I don't have any objection over remake since the original or HD remaster version of the original are also available like for example, you got a Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, but at the same time you got the HD remaster of the original PS2 game also available in a collection which you can also played on modern-gen console. So you got the best of both world available on your modern current gen console. I could say the same for The Last of Us, you got the remaster version and a remake which can be played on current gen console too. So I don't understand why people complain about it. Yes, I understand remaking a game that is 10 years old is pointless (like in the case of The Last of Us), or Dead Rising 1, or something similar to that. But sadly, that's what the gaming world is now like. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2537 |
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I am very sad about this news and it is another downer about the PS5 generation in general.
Bluepoint was a great porting and remake studio. I've personally bought Shadow of the Collosus 3 times now... (PS2, PS3 HD port, PS4 Remake). Bluepoint did two of those, and the ability to play ICO/Shadow Collection in 3-D was *Chef's Kiss*. That was the PlayStation I loved, that cared about fan favorite little games too. I held out long shot hope that ICO would also get remade, like Demons Souls, as a nice quick PS5 showpiece, but sadly GAAS obsessed current Sony doesn't seem to care that much. I know there are changes not to like about Remakes, Shadow of the Colossus nerfed Wander's face, and areas had a little too much greenery which leaned more towards beautiful rather than desolate, so I can see why the Demons Souls critics have a point, but it was still enjoyable, and got new people into a masterpiece who'd never have otherwise. The PS4 port of Gravity Rush was also great. So there are even Vita titles that could see new life. Just imagine new life given to Syphon Filter, Rule of Rose, and any other cult classic titles even with 3rd Party IP exclusives. Or a chance at new single player sequels at smaller scale? Bluepoint should've stuck to it's strengths. This studio closure story is nuanced. Bluepoint were the ones who pitched a God of War GAAS that they wasted time on, leading to their demise. A project that appealed to no one, but neither they nor Sony for some reason saw something that obvious. However, despite Sony's PR that they allow their devs freedom, it is obvious that they were passively pressuring all their devs to explore GAAS, including Naughty Dog, and Insomniac, using their IPs, and so there is circumstantial evidence that Bluepoint would've had more success getting a GAAS greenlit rather than a new single player title or Remake. But what makes it even more frustrating is that Sony is still interested in Remakes because it just greenlit a God of War Trilogy of them recently... With frustration about Sony's first party output, this means one less studio contributing to our investment in these increasingly expensive machines... If Sony thinks it can launch any PS6 anytime soon, they'd better think again. A lot of people haven't even moved on from PS4, and Sony hasn't provided much incentive, nor have 3rd parties. Games understandably take longer to make. Which is why studios like Bluepoint are valuable. So they'd be better off extending the PS5 gen at this rate. What a waste... |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 7273 |
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Just because something might not appeal to people via a pitch doesn’t mean kt’s necessarily a bad idea at the same time not all video games are destined to be successes or failures let alone have straightforward or troubled developmental cycles.
Solely making remakes and remasters of obscure titles with the odd bit of support work might not have been what they wanted to do. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2537 |
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And now they've been shut down entirely! I understand having ambition, but jumping straight into a high risk highly competitive genre you have no experience in was a very very stupid idea. The smarter approach is to slowly and carefully make your way there and scaling up as you go. Port > Remaster > Remake > Established IP Sequel > New IP > Single Player+Multiplayer IP Sequel > IP GAAS. It's always a safe bet to make a game with a brief single player campaign and a multiplayer mode which you could just release separately digitally for cheaper and maintain with service add-ons JUST like in the old gens. It at least covers your project fiscally even if the service side doesn't take off or you cancel that part for not working out. They probably pitched the God of War GAAS because they had assets created as part of support on Ragnarok. But they would have been better off doing the trilogy remakes instead. Or if they wanted to stand out, doing a Bloodborne or Demons Soul sequel like their fans wanted, or their own souls-like Ueada-like new IP... of course that was provided Sony let them, but the story confirms that Sony rejected their follow-up pitches for single player games. |
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