Wish him the best but the one favor I ask is that he green lights a Disruptor sequel before leaving Insomniac. Loved the studio since I have been gaming and eager to see where they go from here.
Sad to see him go.
(Trigger warning, this is my opinion) Insomniac was one of the few Sony studio which proofed its worth in the #playstation5 era. Hope the studio is able to maintain the quality and not fall into mediocrity like other first party studios did.
I mean they've been doing great on their own delivering well reviewed great selling products. The shareholder greed is always a concern but surely they wouldn't mess up a good thing here. What was the point of buying Bungie if not to put some of that team on a live service project?
Sony considers R&C Rift Apart to be a commercial flop and were really unhappy about that
No introspection on Sony's part about their expectations and how sustainable it is to make a game as expensive as RA was to make of course, they'll do the same thing all publishers do and blame the studio
Thats the biggest thing j don't like about Sony; it feels like almost all their first party games are the same genre of "expensive 3rd person cinematic heavy tech demo"
Yeah their output is largely exhausting and generic, and because they're all SO expensive they can sink studios in no time at all
I won't say that huge cinematic AAA games have no place but the industry has overinvested in them and killed medium-priced first party games to it's own detriment
It was widely reported in December 2023 that it fell $8 million short of it's budget
Although in trying to find a decent source for that I've also seen people saying that was an earlier projection? It's so hard to fact check things using search engines now thanks to enshittification
Yeah forced to make a game they probably didn't want to. The reports say it was their decision but we don't know if more single player pitches weren't being entertained or how much meddling went on after the approval.
The man is 56 I founded the studio he's as old as Shuhei...
30 years as a game developer and studio founder, and a colleague running one of the best studios from one of the best publishers in the industry... He's worked hard and earned. The studio is in fantastic hands.
It doesn't seem like he's leaving under bad circumstances. He worked there for 30 years and is ready for retirement. Change can always cause pain points but this doesn't seem like a red flag or anything to me.
I heart this. I learned a lot building assets and code but this is some audre lorde the master’s tools cannot dismantle the house stuff. mad respect. it is not easy leaving tech. much love.
I wish him a pleasant retirement. I hope he stays engaged in some way because i think the industry is better for his influence but if he doesn't then i also think he's earned the rest.
Totally deserved, but a big loss for the industry if he steps back entirely. On top of running an incredible studio, his work with AIAS (including hosting lots of episodes of Game Maker's Notebook) + generally being a nice, rational, mostly egoless person are something we need a lot more of.
The man looks too young to retire. I am starting to question the meaning of retirement lately for example, Jim retired but showed up to his retirement party dressed like it was a public shaming event, Yoshida retires and then had an interview that looked like a Tell-All book promotion preview.
That's a damn shame, but he's earned it. I wish him well, and I hope whomever steps up to replace him understands what made Insomniac great, and doesn't just look towards next quarters earnings. Sadly, given the current state of the industry, I don't see that happening.
The only other CEO I don't think is a horrible person is Digital Extreme's Steve Sinclair. He seems like a down-to-earth guy who still has the look and feel of a normal game dev (and I think is still doing hands-on work on Soulframe me thinks?)
Every other CEO?
Straight to the g- minimum wage jobs.
The CEO of FuturLab (The Powerwash Sim studio) is also pretty good, they announced that they were winding down support for the VR port, but he opted to move the VR team to other stuff in the studio saying that he'll" always choose job security for my team." So that's awesome to see.
What a shame... Many of us are thankful for getting Insomniac to produce bangers after bangers such as the whole Ratchet and Clank IP, which I started gaming on at 6y/o.
Now we gotta wonder, what's gonna happen with the studio ? Sony has been repeatedly shooting itself in the foot with a shotgun...
Retirement isn't tied to age... We have no idea about his financials, maybe he set this year as his retirement date 30 years ago and hit all the goals needed to make that happen. There's also the fact he's being there for 30 years, he might be older than you assumed after a glance at a single pic
This generation? This is the studio that gave us Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto's Rage (or Tondemo Tours/Gateway to Glimmer for JP/EU), Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, Resistance, Sunset Overdrive...
Never heard a single scandal about him treating people like shit or insomniac in general being a bad place to work. Here's hoping that streak continues even with his retirement and his replacement
Comments
Thank you Ted for making Insomniac a magical place.
(Trigger warning, this is my opinion) Insomniac was one of the few Sony studio which proofed its worth in the #playstation5 era. Hope the studio is able to maintain the quality and not fall into mediocrity like other first party studios did.
No introspection on Sony's part about their expectations and how sustainable it is to make a game as expensive as RA was to make of course, they'll do the same thing all publishers do and blame the studio
I won't say that huge cinematic AAA games have no place but the industry has overinvested in them and killed medium-priced first party games to it's own detriment
Although in trying to find a decent source for that I've also seen people saying that was an earlier projection? It's so hard to fact check things using search engines now thanks to enshittification
30 years as a game developer and studio founder, and a colleague running one of the best studios from one of the best publishers in the industry... He's worked hard and earned. The studio is in fantastic hands.
Also, how on earth is this bloke older than me mum? The man's barely aged.
Every other CEO?
Straight to the g- minimum wage jobs.
Now we gotta wonder, what's gonna happen with the studio ? Sony has been repeatedly shooting itself in the foot with a shotgun...
Insomniac was treated roughly in the past recent while by Sony with the layoffs
Especially considering when they've been their MVP on this gen, providing more games thany ANY other 1st party studio.
We'll see what's next....
They're peak.