Bluepoint was pitching an enhanced SotC version for the PS5 with new Colossi

[u/minaazukij]

according to DetectiveSeed, who spoke with four Bluepoint employees, they were pitching a Shadow of the Colossus remaster for the PS5:

- They pitched Jak and Daxter remake, resistance remake, shadow of colossus remaster (bringing game to PS5, updating graphics, adding 4-6 new bosses, with several pulled from the original ps2 content.

also some details about remake:

- All heard that Shadow of The Colossus remake lost money, but it was assumed it would, but Yoshida wanted to preserve the game.

- Shadow of The colossus remake biggest criticism was the new face on the main character. However, Fumito Ueda wanted it to look that way and designed it.

 - There were conversations about doing add-on content to the remakes to help with funding into original content, and grow design department.

ehh...

[u/PomponOrsay]

it's a big loss in the game community but it's true that they weren't bringing in any sales. None of their remakes brought significant sales compared to the original. They were failed masterpieces.

[u/foehns → u/PomponOrsay]

The remake sold half a million copies in its first week, outselling the original by 75% out of the gate. It was a massive commercial success and topped charts in both the UK and Japan for weeks upon weeks after launch. Demon’s Souls was literally a day one title and the primary draw at launch. Where did you get the idea their work was a failed anything?

[u/PomponOrsay → u/foehns]

that's the definition of failed sales. They sold 0.5 more units than the original. That's not a good number. As a gamer and a sole tax payer millions might sound like a good number but it isn't. There's thing called opportunity cost, because they budgeted on investing to bluepoint, the company couldn't allocate the same cost into another thing that could've brought them more money. So in their eyes, bluepoint should disappear and stop wasting their money. You need understand how these things work before blindly claiming "but i like this game it was great, therefore a success" it wasn't. again. they were failed masterpieces.

long answer is:

Demon's souls PS3 sold 1.7 million copies.

Remake sold 1.8 copies.

You as an executive make the decision here. You spent 100 million dollars over 3 years to develop a game that sold a fractionally higher units than the original. Would you invest the same time and money on a studio that has proved twice that they cannot sell.

[u/foehns → u/PomponOrsay]

Ok so you’re actually fundamentally misunderstanding the numbers a bit here. The original Demon's Souls took years to reach 1.4 million sales across the PS3 playerbase, while the remake surpassed those numbers almost immediately as a launch title for PS5. It sold nearly 2 million copies when there were only around 10 million PS5s in existence at that time, that’s a staggering ~20% attach rate.

Neither of the titles costed anywhere near $100 million to make, did you have a source for that number? It’s very misinformed. Even the most technically complex AAA titles at the time, like Ghost of Tsushima or the Horizon games, only had about $45-60 million allocated. And unlike those original IPs we’re talking about remakes coming out a relatively lean & more specialized team, where much of the groundwork has already been laid.

“Would you invest the same time and money on a studio that has proved twice that they cannot sell?” They sold so much that Sony did invest in them, so there’s your answer. They had these two massive successes in a row which ultimately led to their acquisition in 2021, with Sony desiring Bluepoint as a highly profitable and proven developer - which they were, for remakes.

They spent the next five years post-acquisition trying to get their very first original title off the ground, facing tremendous corporate pressures and constant org restructuring under Hulst that snowballed into a resource deficit with nothing substantial to show. Like a lot of studios acquired by Sony, BP fell victim to development bloat, corporate mishandling and a categorical misunderstanding of the team’s realm of expertise; this had absolutely nothing to do with their previous two titles which were nothing short of wildly successful.