If you haven’t heard today’s big news, Sony and developer Firewalk Studios Closing harmony,NoGuardians of the Galaxy Hero shooter has thump thump thump thump thump thump thump thump thump thump thump Since its launch on August 23, the studio seems to be planning a comeback of sorts, as the announcement said that it will be shutting down on September 6 so that the team can “explore” what to do next. In the meantime, anyone who purchased the game is eligible for a full refund.
whatever you like harmony Regardless, it’s going to make you uncomfortable. Sony and Firewalk invested a lot of time and money into the game as part of its massive live-streaming service rollout, but the game flopped so badly that Sony canceled it even before its one-month anniversary. its termination. At a PlayStation business conference, Sony was prepared to invest heavily in the game and the expanded universe it would spawn. There’s even an episode based on the game in Amazon’s upcoming anthology series secret level Come December. This episode could be the last gasp for a competition that was eliminated in just two weeks.
How did we get here? There are many theories, but the impact on the state of PlayStation and the video game industry as a whole is not optimistic. Let’s take a look at some of the internet’s reactions to the (ostensibly temporary) death harmony.
Sympathy for developers
Many people who have worked in companies, especially in creative fields, know the sting of big-name decisions that inevitably lead to the slow decline of something people love. As the public becomes more aware of working conditions within the video game industry, some people are naturally inclined to worry about the designers, artists, and programmers who will inevitably be affected by the decisions that lead to the management of the game industry. harmony.
Crying about the current state of PlayStation
Fair or not, harmony Has become synonymous with PlayStation pitfalls Instant service hub. Sony has been shutting down companies like Japan Studio and London Studio while seemingly pouring a lot of resources into live-streaming games like this one. recently it Service games have been canceled for the following reasons the last of us, Bungie layoffsand it seems like it’s been an impossible period to get first-party games into the PS5 era. although astronomy robot The game launches this week on September 6th, but things are looking bleak for PlayStation right now when it comes to quality first-party games. People crave games like this gravity dashwhich may not be like the last of us or Marsbut certainly more memorable than an instant-service game that crashed and burned within days.
Can this be prevented or has it always been the case harmonyfate?
There are many reasons harmony The result is this. The game was divisive on several fronts, even First shown at State of Play in May. It’s entering an overcrowded game genre Battlefield Special Attack 2 and apex legend Dominate. It’s priced at $40, rather than free like several other competitors. But overall, it lacks some of the character-driven spark needed to get people playing a hero shooter. It’s not enough to be mechanically sound if people aren’t attracted to the heroes they play. PlayStation and FIREWalk clearly hope harmony It might have been as ubiquitous as its contemporaries, but it failed to hit any of the internal metrics it had, so much so that it was floundering just two weeks after launch.
harmony Misguided, but given the market it’s entering, it’s hard for even a better game to penetrate the cultural consciousness, let alone one that’s so generic that it’s often only compared to other titles .
Is there hope?
Sony and Firewalk Studios officially plan to harmony Come back at some point. I think most people probably thought the game would be free-to-play to get rid of the $40 barrier between the shooter and its potential player pool. This seems like a reasonable path forward, and is certainly smarter than throwing years of work and millions of dollars down a well. But we’ve also seen similar games BioWare’s Predator Shooter National anthem He retreated and changed equipment, but he died in the end. How many field service failures and mistakes do we have to see the industry make before lawsuits realize this is unsustainable? I’m more concerned about the human cost of this failure, so I hope harmony Get a second chance at life and achieve better success. The PlayStation fan in me is hoping that if this all finally collapses, someone at Sony will realize that this situation can’t continue and is righting the ship as we speak.