Just over a year after the official closure of Sony Manchester, several former employees have revealed key information about the studio’s rocky production and how its shut down was a classic case of mismanagement and lack of oversight. Furthermore, the anonymous sources described that it felt like “an outsourcing studio” instead of Sony’s own developer, and how team members dealt with low morale and constant changes to their game’s design.
Originally planned to be Sony’s very own triple-A VR game studio, the Manchester-based developer ended up producing zero games in its five years of activity. According to the former employees, the studio was reportedly working on a throwback old-school shooter similar to Desert Strike for the PS4. Titled CSAR: Combat, Search, and Rescue, the game had players “flying around, shooting at enemies and rescuing people from the cockpit of a helicopter.”
Unfortunately, development wasn’t an easy process as many of its leaders didn’t actually work full time at the studio. Specifically, London-based Eric Matthews and Mark Green—both of whom also held senior positions elsewhere within Son—frequently micro-managed the project though they only came in “roughly once a week.” While team members worked on prototypes to show to senior PlayStation Studios members, Green and Matthews would constantly tweak things until they were done “exactly how they wanted.”
In 2016, several high-profile members began leaving the studio after realizing progress was slow. One former employee stated that this sentiment was common throughout the studio’s lifespan:
On paper, it sounds amazing. You had the backing of Sony. You were going to create a new IP, and we haven’t entered production yet so you are there from the start. But after six months to a year, people would realize this isn’t going anywhere and would then face a decision of what to do next.
Sony Manchester would then attempt a leadership shuffle followed by moving the studio’s design team to London where Matthews and Green lived in 2018. Finally, Hermen Hulst became the new head of PlayStation Studios in 2019, which placed further scrutiny on the studio.
At this point, it had been years since the studio’s formation with nothing to show. “There was a change in the top management in Sony. [We were] suddenly…unprotected,” a former employee explained, revealing why Sony had decided to shut Sony Manchester down in February 2020. “Someone looked in detail at what was happening and since there was nothing tangible after five or so years, they shut it down.”
[Source: Polygon]
