Why Did Sony Abandon inFamous, and Will We Ever See it Back?

Sony’s portfolio of first party properties is perhaps in the best shape it has ever been in. First party franchises have obviously been pivotal to the success of PlayStation for as long as anyone can remember, but particularly over the last 7-8 years, we have seen the PlayStation banner come into its own like never before. From established giants like The Last of Us, Uncharted, and God of War to new IP like Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima, PlayStation has enjoyed a string of first party successes, setting itself up for what may very well be countless similar successful releases in the years ahead (unless things go drastically wrong somehow).

As incredible as this rejuvenation of PlayStation Studios was to witness over the course of the PS4 generation in particular, however, it also meant the death of a number of Sony properties that had been perhaps not thriving, but certainly trudging along before the advent of the PS4. One in particular that many had fallen in love with was inFamous, Sucker Punch’s series that allowed players to fulfil their wildest superhero – or supervillain – fantasies in open world settings that were always excellently crafted and a blast to explore. And though Sucker Punch did start off the PS4 era with inFamous, by now, the studio seems to have fully transitioned away from the franchise, with a return to it looked unlikelier by the day.

But why exactly is it that inFamous wasn’t able to survive beyond those early PS4 years? If inFamous Second Son, which was the series’ last outing, had been an unmitigated critical and commercial disaster to the extent of necessitating a fresh start for Sucker Punch as a studio, a complete break from the franchise would have been easy to understand. But Second Son was, at the very least, a good game, even if it wasn’t exactly an instant masterpiece, while with roughly six million units sold as of 2019, it was also by no means a commercial slouch. Its follow up, standalone expansion First Light, was also received well enough by critics and players in its own rights. All of which is to say that inFamous was clearly successful enough to warrant a continued existent, at the very least.

So, we come back to the question- what was behind inFamous’ demise? Well, it may just have been as simple as the franchise have run its natural course. After having delivered three full-fledged mainline entries in about half a decade, Sucker Punch may have felt that it had got everything out of inFamous that it could- or at least wanted to. That isn’t exactly an uncommon occurrence, after all, and ultimately, it’s a good thing that studios are always willing to find and pursue new ideas, even if it means having to move on from established ones. That’s how we get new, creative IP, after all. Even within the PlayStation framework, there’s no shortage of franchises that have gone dormant due to studios moving on to newer ideas (including many that were fellow first party giants on PS3 alongside inFamous, such as Resistance and Killzone).

Just as Guerrilla moved on from Killzone, or Naughty Dog from Uncharted, Sucker Punch decided to move on from inFamous, and as good as inFamous was, it’s not hard to understand why. After three instalments, you could easily see the series in danger of growing stale, and it’s always good to see a studio recognizing that and stepping away from that pitfall in favour of something new and fresh. Of course, Sony, being the parent company, is going to have a say in that, but something that first party PlayStation studios have historically stressed is that they’re given allowed to remain in creative control of what projects they pursue.

Of course, realistically, you would expect that there would be many caveats to that- for instance, you wouldn’t expect Sony to be completely fine with a studio dropping one of its most prestigious and commercially successful franchises to explore something completely new and experimental instead. Then again, even though inFamous was pretty successful from critical and commercial perspectives in its own rights, it was never like it set the world on fire, which was probably why, after three instalments, both Sucker Punch and Sony were fine with the studio moving on to something new- and potentially even more successful. And though that can prove to be a poor decision if the new thing that the studio in such a scenario pivots to doesn’t work out – that, too, is something that we have seen before, sadly – when it does, that decision feels doubly smart in retrospect.

And just as Horizon Zero Dawn’s success allowed Guerrilla to confidently move on from Killzone, the rapturous success of Ghost of Tsushima has lifted Sucker Punch to new heights. Critical success, impressive sales, a big, swanky Hollywood adaptation officially in the works- the samurai epic has been nothing short of a runaway success, and even though the first game (and its re-releases) are all that we have seen of it so far, we would be shocked if the Ghost of Tsushima property wasn’t the main priority for Sucker Punch going forward for the foreseeable future.

Of course, that’s nothing to complain about either. Ghost of Tsushima was an excellent game, and we’re itching to get our hands on its sequel- which Sony has yet to officially acknowledge (much less announce). Presumably, the follow up to the 2020 open world title will arrive at some point within the next couple of years (if not sooner, hopefully), and you can bet your bottom dollar that that won’t be the extent of it. Sucker Punch is going to remain in feudal Japan for the next several years, which means you probably shouldn’t be holding your breath for a new Sucker Punch-made inFamous game anytime soon. Even if Sucker Punch turned into a multi-project studio, there’s no guarantee that it wouldn’t want to explore more new ideas with its second team rather than mining for gold in previously explored caves again.

Is there, perhaps, a chance that Sony spins off a new studio, or hires a different one, to work on a new inFamous game at some point in the future? Maybe it isn’t completely out of the question, seeing as that’s something that Sony has been known to do with its first party properties from time to time, especially with relatively smaller scale releases that it uses to bolster its release calendars. From LittleBigPlanet 3 and Sackboy: A Big Adventure to Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (which, of course, was another Sucker Punch property) and more, we have seen instalments in first party PlayStation properties in the past that have been developed by studios other than the ones that created those franchises. Is inFamous successful enough for Sony to want to greenlight such a project, though, especially given how much time and money it takes to make a new game of inFamous’ scale in today’s day and age? That’s where things get hairy once again.

For now, it looks like inFamous fans are going to have to keep suffering, because it doesn’t look like Sony or Sucker Punch have any intention of returning to it at any point in relatively near future. A remastered collection is maybe the best we can hope for, though frankly even that seems like a bit of a pipe dream at this point.

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