Guerrilla's Killzone franchise has found itself in some contentious positions over the course of its life span. The development of the first game in the series brought about cries of "the Halo killer" from the press. The second game found expectations dramatically raised due to a target render video prominently displayed during a Sony Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference, which prompted questions of whether or not its high visual standards could actually be achieved.
Despite all of these things, Guerrilla has seemingly remained steadfast in delivering its own vision for Killzone, and with the fourth game in the franchise completed, GameSpot got a chance to speak with Hermen Hulst--cofounder and managing director of Guerrilla Games--to talk more about the design process behind Killzone 3, the franchise as a whole, and the good and bad characteristics of the video game industry.
Sony Interactive Entertainment is eying the revival of dormant PlayStation IP, while also strengthening third-party collaborations.
Legend of Dragoon, Killzone, Syphon filter, Motorstorm ~ first revival quattro
followed by :
Jak and Daxter, Resistance, SOCOM, Twisted Metal
and later :
infamous, The Getaway, The Order, Chrono (via Square)
Most of these likely to be handled by new studios than the legacy ones coz they're handling new IPs
Legend of Dragoon ~Sony needs a proper 1st party RPG and what's better than the forgotten LoD? I'll even take a proper FF7-style Remake of it before a sequel. No entry since PS1.
Killzone ~coz Sony also need a single-player FPS, can be handled by Helldivers studio
Syphon Filter ~mostly been a PSP franchise, needs a PS5 sequel, no entry since PS2
and Motorstorm ~coz Sony needs another non-GT driving IP, that's also unique, no entry since PS3
^ Hence these 4 been prioritized in first draft.
Following likely PS6 era:
Jak & Daxter ~nothing to add here, will be good R&C alternative (coz Insomniac is busy pumping Marvels),
Resistance ~another FPS after Killzone hype dies down, no entry since PS3
SOCOM ~can be handled by the new Syphon Filter devs, no entry since PS3
Twisted Metal ~another driving IP, can be handled by new Motorstorm devs, no entry since PS3
Later in PS6 era:
infamous ~Sucker Punch likely to revisit, after Ghost IP saturates, will be an older IP by then
The Getaway ~GTA VI hype will be fading by now and Sony will have a nice open-world IP to surprise the world, no entry since PS2, well worth a visit
The Order ~needs a proper revisit via sequel. IP'd be pretty old by then, well-worth the revisit
Chrono ~ A square+LoD devs collab. Make it happen.
Didn't include Bloodborne & Uncharted coz Sony likely to make 'em happen anyways
That intro to the first Motorstorm is still iconic with the music and wide shot camera pan! Takes me right back to my teen years being in awe of the PS3 graphics on my new 32" Polaroid HD TV 😂
Don't forget Mod Nation Racers! STILL the best kart racer ever made, not named Mario Kart!!!!
Bushido Blade 3 all day long... Please...
Also, I still don't understand why From Software is just SITTING on Tenchu doing nothing. At least outsource it to another company for a remaster or something. I grow more and more upset with From Software every year that passes where they just forget that they own the rights to the Tenchu franchise.
Let's not forget they tossed 3D Dot Heroes into the trash can too. I love Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Elden Ring, but come on... You have other series to work with. Just seems like they want to make the same type of game over and over because it's easier for them these days.
Also add Wipeout, Warhawk, Sly Cooper, a good sequel to PS Allstars (but that fully copies Smash bros and has ring outs instead of Final Smashes to score points) Ape Escape. I do agree with everything on your list, except for Chrono. The only time Chrono Trigger was on Playstation, it was marred by grotesquely long load times. Chrono Trigger wouldn’t be a PS exclusive since it was originally on SNES. And seeing as how Chrono Cross also came to Switch, if Square remade any of the two games or made a sequel, it would be multiplat.
Hence I placed Chrono last.
I am expecting it to be a Sony-Square collab revival with some exclusivity, like FFVII.
Chrono series being "later" is a travesty, lol. Needs to be before Syphon Filter and Killzone honestly. (Even if it is a Square IP.) Syphon Filter was fantastic, don't get me wrong. But Chrono has a bigger legacy. And Killzone has had plenty of games and time to shine. Last game was on PS4. That's way too recent to bring back when others are far more deserving.
Chrono having multiplat probability and not being proprietary IP, I placed it last.
Legend of Dragoon should be the RPG IP that Sony need to focus first.
Chrono IP will require lengthy talks with Square.
As for Killzone, unless Sony is investing in new single-player FPS IPs, Killzone is best IP Sony has for a single-player FPS~ that Sony desperately needs now in their portfolio. Rest all are third person.
The other one being Resistance, which should be handled by Insomniac but they're busy pumping out Marvel games till 2030+
Id definitely like to see a The Order sequel.
The rest will probably be remakes.
How about you remake the game that won the poll for favorite Playstation game of all time, beating out San Andreas and God of War:
SOCOM
And make it into the actual game and not what they tried to do with Nocom 4.
It’s a crime shame what happened to Socom. If Sony had some sense to them. They would have had multiple teams already developing a proper Socom revival.
"Sony Interactive Entertainment is eying the revival of dormant PlayStation IP"
That title is misleading. The interview doesn't suggest that at all, he just says when asked "the company continually explores opportunities to leverage its legacy IP", they're not eyeing the revival of old IP's anymore than they have been.
"Continually" suggests it's business as usual, sadly. Sony are happy to occasionally reference their old catalogue through things like Astro but I wouldn't count on something like a new Jak game any time soon.
If they did this, they would lock up the competition leaving only Mario and Zelda to fight for their lives. Nintendo games might even start coming to Sony.
I'll never understand the kind of person who makes multiple accounts just to troll. Like how sad is your life that this is entertainment? What a waste of a life.( to the person responding to you anast)
My problem with Nintendo is that if you take away Ip's created before 2000...you are left with very little that is new.
Dark Cloud would be a nice addition from the PS2 era but Jak And Daxter sequel or remake would be feasible.
Syphon Filter was actual a good series, even the psp version was fun and the multiplayer was fun too. I know Bend Studios is working on something different but after Days Gone Sony was kind of leaning more towards a Syphon Filter game.. but I still hope for some Days Gone love in the future.
PS3 games that would be nice would be Resistance Fall of Man remake.. I had so much fun with the weapons and learning all the special abilities using them in multiplayer. Insomniac were truly original and geniuses.
Warhawk.. need I say more.. best dog fights to ground to ground combat I had.. so much fun..
Motorstorm would be a nice addition if they go from the first title.
Killzone would be a nice remake since hardly anyone knew of it from the first game nowadays. Since GG isn’t gonna make another one, this could be passed down to one of Sony’s companies that could remake it. But that’s just dream.
I love and embrace the new titles but some titles deserve come off the shelf.
As PlayStation celebrates its 30th anniversary, let's explore the best PlayStation games Sony has to offer.
There's too many games to choose from
No Metal geat solid 1,2,3,4?
No Resident evil?
No Silent hill?
No Midnight club 3?
No NfS Underground 2?
No Final Fantasy?
No Burnout 3?
No Dragon quest 8?
No Days gone?
No Ace combat?
No Tekken/Soul calibur?......
just from the top of my head
PS1 era was full of great RPGs, PS2 was racing generation i would pick top 200 and even that would be just a fraction.
30 is way too low over the entire history of Playstation, I just wouldn't be able to narrow it down that much, I would pick 100 at least.
Yeah...really odd list. I get that it is personal preference and I love most of the games listed, but my list would definitely be different. I agree though, it would be incredibly difficult to come up with just 30.
I only picked first-party titles. Otherwise, I agree!
EDIT: Except for Days Gone, I don't get the love for it but you do you!
PlayStation World Wide Studios head Herman Hulst has been appointed to lead Bungie, based on the latest report.
interesting if true... I'd love to see him get the team at bungie to take a crack at Killzone. Even if it was a live service KZ game, I'd just be glad they would bring that IP back.
I'm all in for Killzone returning, but with live service? No thanks. Just keep it like how it was like previous games.
Most available numbers/estimates put the bestselling Killzone games (2, 3, and Shadow Fall) as selling between 2-3 million each. The franchise doesn't have strong name appeal; if anything, there's a huge segment of gamers/media that think they gain credibility by hating on Killzone without ever playing it (or by playing for ten minutes so they can say it sucks). If Sony were to remake/reimagine the first one (more likely than a sequel at this point), it would probably only sell a few million and lose money (which they would then misread to suggest people don't want single player shooters, they want live service games). As much as I like what they did with Killzone and think it has been treated unfairly (the lack of respect for Brian Cox's performance as Visari alone is criminal), I don't think it would do well on return.
@JEECE
I will tell you this, if they remake Killzone 2 from the ground up and keep the core gameplay the same, I guarantee it will sell millions. The only reason why it did not do well at the time was because anything that did not play like a twitch shooter CoD was pretty much considered trash. That type of thinking is gone now and many people have since acknowledged KZ2 was great game. I think both those who are nostalgic and those that missed out on KZ2 when it was at it's peak will pick up a remake for sure.
Now if we are talking a reboot with completely different gameplay and whatnot, I agree that the Killzone brand isn't strong enough to get enough sells for it to be considered a success unless it ends up being so good that word of mouth helps with that.
Hot take here: I think Killzone works best as a live service game.
The people who played it REALLY played it, myself (as a guy who really doesn't like FPS games) included.
Killzone feels very different from your typical shooter. Weapons feel heavier and the gameplay just feels dissimilar to everything else.
Killzone games also come around once or twice a generation. Releasing one game that's well supported over a period of time knowing it's just a different kind of FPS with a cult following, it seems to be that would be a great way forward.
That's just me. Take it from someone that doesn't typically play these games.
@Outside_ofthe_Box
I mean, I hope you are right. I don't think you are, but I'd like to be wrong on this point. I just know that, except on here, anytime Killzone comes up, people either have no idea what it is (sadly, even people who were active PS3 users at the time), or they assume that everyone hates Killzone and that it should just be the butt of jokes (usually it's pretty obvious these people never actually played Killzone, or they "played it at a friend's house" and hated it).
And I'd like to think you are right that people would be open to the weightiness and feel of KZ2, but I see no evidence to suggest they would be.
No live service KZ. Make a new Killzone with a brand new big campaign & tack on different modes of multiplayer including a co-op multiplayer like in the vein of Remnant.
I'm not sure, Bungie games have really good shooting mechanics, and they have experience with Sci-fi games.
Also, if the game isn't LS, they can take their time with level design.
But KZ2 gameplay was awesome so we don't need bungie style gameplay for KZ.
It doesn't matter if Bungie's games have good shooting mechanics. Bungie doesn't make games like Killzone. Destiny just builds on what they'd already done with Halo, and Halo built on what they'd already done with Marathon. They've spent the last 30 years iterating on that overall style of FPS. That's what they know how to do well and they've stuck with it, which is smart. They don't build FPS games like Killzone so that pairing doesn't make any sense. I'm not saying the game would necessarily be "bad", but it wouldn't be Killzone.
Killzone 2 war zone mode and resistance 2 in 8 player co-op were amazing times and experiences during Ps3 days
Wow just the idea of bungie working with the killzone IP blows my mind remember the whole killzone is a halo killer debate well to see the halo Devs switch to running Killzone because you know Guerilla won't just wow
Bungie is completely wasted at PlayStation currently. Hope he can turn it around. Forget the GaaS crap. Give me a full on Bungie fresh IP experience.
Also, how about a Killzone 2 and 3 remaster re-release. Heck, throw in Mercenary too. That game was incredible.
Just out of curiosity, what would you say is the last successful shooter (with both singleplayer and multiplayer components) that was not a live service/Game as a Service?
I don't play many shooters anymore so I can only go with what I have played, so for me I'd probably have to go back to Battlefield 3 or Bad Company 2 (don't remember which is more recent). Both had great single player campaigns and obviously incredible multiplayer. I would've said Battlefield 4 but I don't remember if that had a campaign or not. All the Battlefields after had only short, modulated single player missions.
To be fair I was definitely a Battlefield addict in it's prime so I stopped playing COD after Modern Warfare 2 (the original). And I was a PlayStation guy, so I played Killzone 2 and 3 and the original Resistance (didn't care for the sequels) a lot. And then to be honest, before that I probably only played Time Splitters 2.
Didn't have an Xbox so I never got into Halo but have played them more recently in Master Chief Collection. Those are the games I think Bungie needs to go back to (obviously not Halo but that caliber of shooter with focus on epic story).
And for what it's worth I did get sucked into the first Destiny at launch, then again when they released that "complete" version with all the original dlc (forget what they called it). I thought the game was fun and exciting, and liked the strikes and pvp multiplayer, but it just couldn't keep me coming back after a while. Became too repetitive.
The last modern shooter for me that is incredible that isn't GaaS are Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal. Phenomenal games.
Maybe Titanfall 2?
and also depends what you exclude by non-live service for multiplayer as the online part will require post launch content updates ... any mp game without post launch stuff is essentiallly called 'dead' nowadays
@RaidenBlack
Yeah that's one of the reasons I asked. Obviously there is a lot of hate for "live service" multiplayer games, but on the other hand, one of the chief criticisms multiplayer games get nowadays is that they aren't being updated often enough. So I'm always interested to know where people draw the line between a more traditional multiplayer game and a "live service" game.
You have identified one of the problems though. If a dev put out an FPS now and only gave you the base game and 3-4 map packs (in other words, a more traditional 2000s style multiplayer game), people would attack the game for lack of content and characterize the game as "dead" or "abandoned" as soon as the last map pack came out.
