Sony Drops PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Studio

[The Wooster]

Sony Drops PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Studio

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is being handed over to Sony's internal studios.

Sony has ended its relationship with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale developer, SuperBot Entertainment, and handed over responsibility for the title and its DLC to Santa Monica Studio. This news comes just days after the California-based developer laid off a significant number of staff members.

Both SuperBot and Sony insist the split is amicable, but neither have given a reason for the decision to part ways, naturally leading to speculation that Sony isn't pleased with the performance of All-Stars.

"Sony Computer Entertainment can confirm that the working agreement with developer SuperBot Entertainment has amicably ended," a Sony representative told Kotaku. "We have had a positive working relationship with this talented studio, and wish them the best of success in their next endeavor. PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale and the title's forthcoming DLC releases will continue to be fully supported by Santa Monica Studio."

So what's happening to SuperBot? Well, the developer has no plans to shut down, but without that delicious Sony money it seems unlikely the studio can maintain its current staff.

"We don't have a reduction plan as of yet, however it is unlikely we can continue with our current work force for an extended period of time," SuperBot's director of operations, David Yang, told Kotaku. "We are still working things out and hope to continue on with as many of us as possible."

SuperBot was founded in 2008 by former Sony Santa Monica executive producer, Sharron Studstill. All-Stars is the studio's only game to date, hopefully it won't be the last.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5981571/sony-cuts-ties-with-playstation-all+stars-creators-studios-fate-in-question]


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[Mr.Mattress]

Well that isn't good at all. I don't like this game but my Brother does.

And unless Sony razzle dazzles everyone on the 20th, I can't see any Sony related company living much longer...

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Well that sucks for the people at SuperBot and I really hope they can through that.

I enjoyed Playstation All-Stars, so I'm glad it's not being dropped completely and is still being supported.

 

[Sylveria]

SuperBot? More like spam bot.
You know what would've made your game even remotely playable? The ability to actually win or lose within standard match time.

Every good game goes in to 3x over-time every match, I have no idea what what you're talking about.


Sony, if you're going to keep basing your entire business plan on "let's rip off Nintendo", you need to stop screwing it up.

 

[Ghonzor]

Everything I've seen regarding All-Stars is just cringe worthy. The game looks like a train wreck of poor ideas and even worse implementation. Smash Bros. is pretty mediocre to begin with, and All-Stars is a pretty terrible Smash Bros.

 

[shrekfan246]

I hope SuperBot doesn't go out of business. A lot of developers are losing their jobs lately, we don't need to lose another one.

Santa Monica is pretty good though, so I'm glad PS All-Stars will continue to be supported. It's a fun little party fighter.

 

[Scribblesense]

I think PS All-Stars would have been a better game if they had ripped off Smash Bros wholesale instead of trying to do something different.

 

[mjc0961]

Well what did they expect? Honestly, you made a Super Smash Bros ripoff title (except you made it WORSE than SSB), with a bunch of characters who had new games coming out soon rather than choosing the main "faces" of the industry (primarily as a revolting marketing ploy), and yet you actually thought it was going to blow people away and sell ten billion copies?

Why does Sony think it's going to become relevant again by copying Nintendo? This is at least the second time this generation alone that they've copied Nintendo directly and failed at it.

Exactly right. For example, why put in new Dante? A lot of gamers weren't happy with him. He isn't put in to make fans happy, he's there to advertise DmC and nothing else. Why is Nariko in there, there's certainly not a lot of love for her or Heavenly Sword. They might as well have put the guy from Haze in there too. And why is Big Daddy in there when BioShock is not only not Playstation Exclusive, but was originally 360 exclusive? Oh right, BioShock Infinite is coming out soon. Why the hell is Raiden in there? Because Metal Gear Rising is coming out this year of course! Not because people like him. Why is Colonel Radec in there at all? He's not well loved and even if there was a new main Killzone game coming out (the Vita one doesn't even have a release date, and no news of Killzone 4 for PS3 at all), he sure as shit wouldn't be in it. Meanwhile, a character somebody might actually want to play as, suck as Kat, is stuck being DLC that hasn't even come out yet.

Part of the appeal of Smash Bros is playing as characters people LOVE. Smash Bros isn't an advertising gimmick, it's just a bunch of great Nintendo characters beating the stuffing out of each other. Some of Sony Smash Bros is that, but sadly way too much of it is marketing or just plain stupidity. I don't want to be new Dante beating up Colonel Radec, I want to be Tomba biting Ratchet on the head. But Tomba doesn't have a game coming out, and apparently he's loved too much to fill an "obscure character" slot, so he gets nothing and instead we get Colonel Radec I seriously cannot express how dumb that is.

Also, two Cole McGraths. Did they not play as Zelda/Shiek in Smash Bros? Come on, there did not need to be two Coles.

 

[heroicbob]

Part of the appeal of Smash Bros is playing as characters people LOVE. Smash Bros isn't an advertising gimmick, it's just a bunch of great Nintendo characters beating the stuffing out of each other. Some of Sony Smash Bros is that, but sadly way too much of it is marketing or just plain stupidity. I don't want to be new Dante beating up Colonel Radec, I want to be Tomba biting Ratchet on the head. But Tomba doesn't have a game coming out, and apparently he's loved too much to fill an "obscure character" slot, so he gets nothing and instead we get Colonel Radec I seriously cannot express how dumb that is.

Also, two Cole McGraths. Did they not play as Zelda/Shiek in Smash Bros? Come on, there did not need to be two Coles.

that was my main disappointment with the game i realize that most of the really classic PlayStation characters haven't even had a game in the PlayStation 2 generation but i would have at least expected crash bandicoot or god forbid a final fantasy character

a classic PlayStation character i would have liked in it would be Klonoa does anyone remember him?

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

SuperBot was told to ripoff a major Nintendo franchise and use bland characters to do so. Sony's surprised the game didn't sell well?

That's like telling a group of people to play Russian Roulette with an automatic. I'm sorry but to be forced to instantly fail on your first game as a developer and see it coming so clearly is really vomit worthy.

 

[aba1]

Wow so much hate for this game to be honest I love it. This was my favorite game this year a ton of fun. Anybody I know who actually bothered to play it for more than 2 seconds has comes to greatly enjoy it and most have wanted to go out and buy a copy by the end of the night.

I think wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many people blew this game off just for being like smash without giving a chance. Besides if you like smash wouldn't you want another game that is like it, that way you have twice the fun!

 

[aba1]

Well what did they expect? Honestly, you made a Super Smash Bros ripoff title (except you made it WORSE than SSB), with a bunch of characters who had new games coming out soon rather than choosing the main "faces" of the industry (primarily as a revolting marketing ploy), and yet you actually thought it was going to blow people away and sell ten billion copies?

Why does Sony think it's going to become relevant again by copying Nintendo? This is at least the second time this generation alone that they've copied Nintendo directly and failed at it.

Exactly right. For example, why put in new Dante? A lot of gamers weren't happy with him. He isn't put in to make fans happy, he's there to advertise DmC and nothing else. Why is Nariko in there, there's certainly not a lot of love for her or Heavenly Sword. They might as well have put the guy from Haze in there too. And why is Big Daddy in there when BioShock is not only not Playstation Exclusive, but was originally 360 exclusive? Oh right, BioShock Infinite is coming out soon. Why the hell is Raiden in there? Because Metal Gear Rising is coming out this year of course! Not because people like him. Why is Colonel Radec in there at all? He's not well loved and even if there was a new main Killzone game coming out (the Vita one doesn't even have a release date, and no news of Killzone 4 for PS3 at all), he sure as shit wouldn't be in it. Meanwhile, a character somebody might actually want to play as, suck as Kat, is stuck being DLC that hasn't even come out yet.

Part of the appeal of Smash Bros is playing as characters people LOVE. Smash Bros isn't an advertising gimmick, it's just a bunch of great Nintendo characters beating the stuffing out of each other. Some of Sony Smash Bros is that, but sadly way too much of it is marketing or just plain stupidity. I don't want to be new Dante beating up Colonel Radec, I want to be Tomba biting Ratchet on the head. But Tomba doesn't have a game coming out, and apparently he's loved too much to fill an "obscure character" slot, so he gets nothing and instead we get Colonel Radec I seriously cannot express how dumb that is.

Also, two Cole McGraths. Did they not play as Zelda/Shiek in Smash Bros? Come on, there did not need to be two Coles.

Keep in mind Nintendo owns the rights to all their properties while Sony does not. Since Sony doesn't own the rights to most of their characters Superbot would have had to both get permission and pay to use any of the characters in the game minus a couple. So the decisions as to who made it in was largely dictated by budget and agreements. You really think Superbot wanted new Dante ... of course not, they probably had to use him because that is what Capcom wanted same goes for other characters.

 

[GenGenners]

Wow so much hate for this game to be honest I love it. This was my favorite game this year a ton of fun. Anybody I know who actually bothered to play it for more than 2 seconds has comes to greatly enjoy it and most have wanted to go out and buy a copy by the end of the night.

I think wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many people blew this game off just for being like smash without giving a chance. Besides if you like smash wouldn't you want another game that is like it, that way you have twice the fun!

^This.
The level of bile in this thread is embarrassing. I can tell just from reading the comments that few people here have even played it.

 

[ex951753]

I've played the game thoroughly and find it really bland. If Allstars was going to rip off ssb,then they should've kept the same concept instead of trying to be witty and add that god awful finisher concept. Aside from the awful, broken, @#%@#$ death system, the game play was somewhat enjoyable but may require a balancing tweak on some of the characters. The final nail to the coffin for me was the single player. From the non-existent story line to the boring, repetitive "stages" is one of the biggest failures about PS Allstars. In the end, it feels like an uncompleted game, a game rushed to the shelves just to meet the deadline, 10 years too late.

 

[Falcon123]

Forget the correlations to Smash Bros and consider this: when the only thing that really matters is a kill move which, for the record, is by no means balanced among the characters (Sweet Tooth's is atrocious ), you're doing it wrong. All of it. I get why they used the characters that they did and can forgive them for it (though it doesn't help), but the central game mechanic just feels wrong whenever I or anyone else I know played it. Super Smash Bros is held in such high esteem for many reasons, but chief among them is the game feel. It feels good to watch that damage percentage go up as you whack away at your opponent. Items feel like they matter because of the immense effect they can have on the game. PlayStation All Stars dropped all of that, and suffered for it.

Also, you know what the most maligned feature of the Smash Bros. series has been to date? The horribly imbalanced Final Smash moves that, while pretty, ruin a lot of the character balance and grow old quickly. They based the entirety of PAS:BR on this mechanic. They literally copied the worst part of the series.

Wish Superbot the best, as they clearly have some design talent, but I will never understand the decisions they made on a mechanical basis.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Wow so much hate for this game to be honest I love it. This was my favorite game this year a ton of fun. Anybody I know who actually bothered to play it for more than 2 seconds has comes to greatly enjoy it and most have wanted to go out and buy a copy by the end of the night.

I think wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many people blew this game off just for being like smash without giving a chance. Besides if you like smash wouldn't you want another game that is like it, that way you have twice the fun!

I agree.

I took a chance with it and I fell in love with it after I got used to how the game was doing things. I liked what they did with the character moves, and how the stage will attack you. Besides, if you're gonna 'rip off' something then why not a game that does things well. Last time I checked games have been ripping each other off for years, so I don't get why this one gets a special mention.

Loads of fun and really crazy when you get four people/characters all together.

 

[Exbando]

While I enjoy the game, I can see some problems people would have with it. The story is not just lacking, it's not even there. Certain characters that I would've liked aren't there. I think I'm one of the few people that didn't care about the new Dante being in the game over the old one, since I haven't played any of the Devil may Cry games. There aren't enough stages, especially when the games are only around 3 minutes long by default.

I hope SuperBot can continue to make games, and I'm glad that Sony Santa Monica is going to continue making DLC.