Another high-profile name departs Sony as Santa Monica designer leaves company

Seth Killian, former designer for Sony developer Santa Monica, has left the company "on his own terms," becoming another big name that leaves the big company and looking foward to indie development.


Apparently, Killian was set to leave back in December, finishing up with the company in recent months.

Hi guys, I chose to leave my Sony family back in Dec + on great terms. I was inspired by their amazing indies to do my own thing :)
— Seth Killian (@sethkillian) March 25, 2014

GameSpot's news story on Killian's departure lists him as the fourth "high-profile" worker to leave the company. The list also includes Col Rodgers (Driveclub director), Jaime Griesemer (Infamous: Second Son designer), and Stig Asmussen (God of War series veteran).

Don't forget, Uncharted writer Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog and Jack Tretton stepped down as CEO of Sony earlier this month. Also, Santa Monica faced a huge amount of layoffs in late February.

What's happening with Sony's studios? Departures are happening left and right, and it's puzzling to see from the public eye considering how well the PlayStation 4 has been doing out of the gate.

It's been a rough patch for Santa Monica, who has also suffered the slow death of PlayStation All-Stars and seeing God of War Ascension only selling 1.7 million worldwide on PlayStation 3. In comparison, the Gold of War Collection sold 2.5 million and God of War III sold 4.65 million copies globally (stats from VGChartz).

In better news, Santa Monica is working with Ready at Dawn on the upcoming exclusive, The Order: 1886.

'Uncharted' for PlayStation 4 listed on Germany GameStop website

Was there ever any doubt that Nathan Drake and company would be back for another installment on the PlayStation 4? Another overseas gaming website has given us an unofficial confirmation that there will be Uncharted on Sony's new console.

A listing was found on the Germany GameStop website today. It's generic with no real information, more like a place holder of what's to come. The title is simply Uncharted, potentially giving the notion that there will be a subtitle for the game instead of a continual count of numbers.

No cover art is available, and neither is a date. Basically, this listing could be nothing more than GameStop just putting in the place holder because they expect an Uncharted title to be released on the console, as all of us expect. There's been hints at it, but nothing's been officially confirmed.

Typically, if there are more games made by Sony than just the original three on consoles, the number was abandoned. This happened with both Killzone and God of War, with the former receiving the Shadow Fall subtitle and the latter getting Ascension.

These games don't continue the trilogy, but instead create a new part of the story set well before or after the events of the original trilogy.

Hopefully we'll be seeing an official announcement soon and more information on the next Uncharted game.

[Image credit: Flickr]

God of War: Ascension Drops to $40

The fourth iteration of the God of War series on the PlayStation 3 has officially dropped to $40. 

Sony announced the price slash of God of War: Ascension by $20 this week. It doesn't come as much of a surprise considering it's been seen around that price at places like Amazon since late April. 

The game has also not been a great seller for the console, prompting in discounts. Last month, the retail price for the PS3 GOW: Ascension Legacy Bundle dropped to $300. Included with the game is the GOW Collection that features all five other games (including two from PlayStation Portable), a 500 gigabyte hard drive, and a 30-day free trial of PlayStation Plus. 

GOW: Ascension is officially the seventh installment of the entire GOW series. It serves as the prequel in the series and contains the story of Kratos being held captive of the three Furies once he abandons Ares. Ares previously tricked Kratos into killing his wife and child. 

The exclusive third-person hack-and-slash received above average reviews; GameRankings averages 79.45 percent. Popular gaming sites are exactly in that range with a 7.8 at IGN an 8 at GameSpot out of 10. 

For those still not wanting to drop the money for GOW: Ascension, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the game drop to $30 or less during the fall and holiday season.

[Photo credit: Flickr/Vincent Lee]