14 DAY TRIAL // Despite being linked to the PlayStation platform for a long time, the development team at the Sony Santa Monica studio is not driven by a publisher mentality and is ready to deliver titles driven by innovation rather than by simple commercial concerns.
Shannon Studstill, who is the leader of the development studio, has told Gamasutra during an interview that, game making “really needs to be driven by the creative. We are not a studio, nor are we a company, that has the publisher mentality driving the creative decisions within the franchise.”
She added, “That happens at the team level, and we cherish that ability that Sony gives us. It’s certainly something at Sony Santa Monica that we take advantage of. We want the visionary in there making those types of decisions.”
The executive says that the upper level of management at Sony is brought in when decisions need to be made about resources linked to a particular game and that they never drive the original process that results in new game mechanics.
Sony Santa Monica has delivered some of the biggest blockbusters on the PlayStation 3 and is currently working on God of War: Ascension, a new game that will star Kratos and will add multiplayer for the first time in the history of the franchise.
The new game will have a revamped combat engine, allowing players to have more freedom when engaging enemies on the battlefield, and will also push the God of War III engine to its limits in order to deliver better quality than ever.
The story of the game will take place before the events of the other titles in the series and will show a more human side of main character Kratos.
The game will be launched exclusively on the PlayStation 3 from Sony and is set to arrive during 2013.