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00:00You're on your way to see your wife and kid, and they're going to be real happy to see you.
00:05While Insomniac sees continuous success with every new Ratchet & Clank game,
00:10one member of the family is bound to be ignored by the masses.
00:15Resistance is one of the biggest IPs of the PlayStation 3 that Sony could greatly benefit from in the current
00:21age of gaming.
00:22Well, that's what some may tell you.
00:24In recent years, there has been an uptick in the number of PlayStation fans begging for Sony to greenlight a
00:29new game set in the Resistance series,
00:32or, at the very least, give us a collection of ports or remasters.
00:37But was it ever as big as we perceive it to be?
00:40Shit! What the hell was that?
00:42It's Star Wars! They know we're human! So quit yapping and land already!
00:46Welcome to Mojo Plays! My name is Ty, and today we'll be taking a look at the mysterious disappearance of
00:53the Resistance franchise.
00:55Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to
00:59be notified about our latest videos.
01:04Resistance was a rather interesting departure from the visual aesthetic Insomniac was known for in the late 1990s and early
01:122000s.
01:13Say, look here. Who brought the yank?
01:15With the exception of their debut title, the gritty and action-heavy Disruptor,
01:20Insomniac Games was known primarily for cutesy cartoony games like Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank.
01:26While the former IP would continue under Universal Interactive due to publisher ownership,
01:31Insomniac would continue working closely with Sony and belt out several Ratchet & Clank games for the PlayStation 2.
01:38However, as the seventh generation of gaming was approaching the horizon,
01:41it was time for Sony and its partners to start recognizing where the industry was heading.
01:46The PlayStation 2 was already diving into online gaming with a small selection of titles,
01:51but now was the time to go full force with the PlayStation 3.
01:54I'm outside. Where are you?
01:57Right. We'll see you now.
01:59Though the PS3 wouldn't launch for another year and a half,
02:02Sony already began showing demos starting at E3 2005.
02:05Here we have a battle in Manchester between a bunch of Chimeran hybrids and humans.
02:11We've got a lot of guys shooting at each other.
02:12They're also shooting at me, but since I'm in god mode, they can't really hurt me.
02:16One of these demos was simply known as I-8,
02:19and it was a first-person shooter that blended World War II with menacing alien invaders.
02:24Gone were the days of colorful dragons and gems.
02:27In comes the beginning of realistic, gritty action games,
02:31or as some may call it, the piss filter era of gaming.
02:35Though at the time, this was considered a technical achievement in games.
02:39Just this demo alone showcased how much more detailed textures could get,
02:43how much smoother polygons could be,
02:46and ultimately, how games could get more immersive with better fidelity and interactivity.
02:51Strangely enough, Sony would never mention the game's release date,
02:55only the official name via a presentation at the 2006 Game Developers Conference.
03:08Resistance Fall of Man released on November 11th, 2006 as one of the PlayStation 3's launch titles.
03:15It didn't receive critical acclaim, but reviews were universally positive overall,
03:19with some outlets calling it the best of the PS3's launch titles.
03:23Not that there was that much competition in the launch lineup between Ridge Racer 7,
03:28Call of Duty 3, Tony Hawk's Project 8, Genji, Days of the Blade,
03:32you know, the giant enemy crab game based on famous battles that actually took place in Japan,
03:39as the devs said.
03:40Though it resembled military shooters we had seen before,
03:43the incorporation of aliens already made resistance much more interesting.
03:47What was even more compelling was how the game changed depending on your actions.
03:51These weren't simple good or bad moral choices, but rather what you focus on shooting at in the fight.
03:58Shoot a chimera that's attacking your troop and your allies live to fight alongside you in the next mission.
04:04Focus solely on shooting chimera, and you might end up becoming a one-man army before you know what's happening.
04:10This alone could determine how much easier or harder the rest of the game could turn out for you,
04:15and folks loved it.
04:16In less than a year, Resistance sold more than 2 million copies,
04:21making it an incredibly strong start for not just the PlayStation 3,
04:24but Insomniac's brand new IP.
04:27The game would eventually flatline at just shy of 4 million copies sold.
04:32There was no question that a sequel needed to start production immediately.
04:37Former friends and neighbors now lie in storm drains,
04:42limbs twisted in ways I can't begin to describe.
04:45As with most sequels, the idea behind Resistance 2 was to increase the scale of the universe,
04:51make the chimera bigger, make the world bigger, make the cinematics bigger,
04:56make the animations bigger, make the marketing and the merchandise bigger.
05:00If Resistance Fall of Man was to be the big kickoff for PS3,
05:04Resistance 2 was going to be the home run and really push the technology
05:08while delivering a compelling game.
05:10To really drive the hype, enigmatic websites were published
05:14that detailed stories about super soldiers,
05:17advertised newsletters from an organization called the Alliance for American Autonomy,
05:22included postcards with mysterious phone numbers,
05:24and contained secret documents talking about the chimera.
05:28With this much buzz,
05:30Resistance 2 was bound to be the biggest title the PS3 had seen yet.
05:39Resistance 2 launched on November 4th, 2008,
05:43and the critical reception was roughly the same as the first game.
05:47Critics loved the campaign and the online multiplayer,
05:50but noted how much slower the movement was,
05:53an odd downgrade compared to previous games Insomniac had made before.
05:57Criticism towards Resistance 2 grew from players,
06:00as more people pointed out how unreasonably difficult the game was compared to its predecessor.
06:06How long do I have?
06:09Three hours.
06:12If we are lucky.
06:13Regardless of these crucial flaws,
06:15Resistance 2 wound up receiving several awards from a handful of gaming outlets.
06:20Sales were roughly the same too, if not a few hundred thousand higher.
06:24Still, plenty of reason to keep the train rolling with a third game.
06:28God damn it!
06:29This ambush is going to hell!
06:35Unlike the first two games,
06:37Resistance 3 had actually leaked before Sony or Insomniac
06:40could say anything about the IP's next game.
06:43Columbia Pictures, one of Sony's movie silos,
06:46had begun production on Battle Los Angeles in 2009,
06:50less than a year after Resistance 2 had been released.
06:53Sony wouldn't announce the game until August 2010.
06:56What followed after was a bit of a strange marketing campaign
07:00compared to the last two games.
07:02Rather than talk about improvement, story,
07:04and all the juicy tidbits that a marketing exec would gush over with buzzwords,
07:08Resistance 3's marketing focused almost entirely on the game's weaponry,
07:13with short clips called the Lab Video Series.
07:16Some typical behind-the-scenes clips were published,
07:20but they were far fewer this time around.
07:31Resistance 3 launched on September 6th, 2011,
07:35and critically performed, well, roughly the same as the other two.
07:39Some outlets found it to be the best game in the franchise,
07:42while others took umbrage with the environments and level design.
07:45Online multiplayer also saw a few more hiccups than Resistance 2 did,
07:49but also played a little faster.
07:51But the most shocking part of its launch
07:53was just how abysmal Resistance 3 did commercially.
07:57Sales during the first week amounted to no more than 200,000 copies sold,
08:01a horrid amount when the first two games surpassed half a million
08:05before the end of their respective launch weeks.
08:07The game never fully recovered after that.
08:17To further showcase how bad the commercial performance was,
08:21we can refer to the massive data breach Insomniac Games suffered back in December 2023.
08:27Among the ocean of information leaked across PlayStation Network and secret documents
08:31was sales data centered on Insomniac's entire library of games
08:35that were released on PlayStation 3 as well as PlayStation 4.
08:40According to these documents,
08:41Resistance 3 cost roughly $37 million to make,
08:45yet only achieved a little over $73 million in net sales.
08:50In other words, the game only made twice its budget back before flatlining.
08:54What do you think would happen if one of those terraformers fell out of the sky?
09:01You mean, fall out of the sky on top of that tower over there?
09:05That's exactly what I mean.
09:07In the eyes of normal customers such as you and I,
09:10this may be enough to call Resistance 3 a success.
09:13Any amount of profit is better than no profit at all, right?
09:16Well, if you're running a company like Insomniac Games,
09:19that simply isn't the result you want.
09:21When working in movies, TV, and even video games in the AAA space,
09:25you want to make more than double your budget back
09:28so that you can cushion the company should future projects and business deals fall through.
09:32Unless you're a smaller team like Supergiant Games or Yacht Club Games,
09:36getting double your budget back isn't going to fly if you need new staff,
09:41new equipment, a new building to relocate to, and more to continue normal operations.
09:46Plus, before this point,
09:48Insomniac Games was making nearly triple its budgets back or more with every single game.
09:54So what about Resistance 3 made it sell so abysmally compared to everything else Insomniac had done?
10:01Was it the weird approach in marketing?
10:02Did the reception stem from the changes made in Resistance 2,
10:06causing players to leave the franchise entirely?
10:09The answer might lie right outside of Insomniac's offices.
10:13Susan, what are you doing? We gotta get out of here.
10:15I am tired of watching my son die.
10:19Susie, we gotta go.
10:20See, even though the first two Resistance games sold really, really well,
10:25the PlayStation 3 was in constant turmoil since its launch in 2006.
10:29As multi-platform games began popping up,
10:32players began noticing differences between the PS3 and its competitor, the Xbox 360.
10:38Much of the general public found the Xbox 360's controller to be more durable and responsive
10:43compared to the PS3's DualShock 3 controller.
10:46On top of that, the performance of most multi-platform games was often unbearable on PlayStation 3,
10:52with constant frame dipping, screen tearing, and sometimes slightly longer load times.
10:58It didn't help that Microsoft was really aggressive with marketing deals
11:02and pushing for ads that tied games closer to Xbox.
11:05On the development side of things, many studios found it easier to develop games on the Xbox 360
11:11and even the Nintendo Wii compared to the PS3.
11:15As we've learned in recent years, the PS3 had entirely different structures in cell processors,
11:20making it much more difficult to get games running properly on a PS3.
11:24All of this would cause Sony to get left behind until the early 2010s,
11:28when Naughty Dog was cranking out Uncharted games,
11:31and Insomniac kept trucking along with Ratchet and Resistance.
11:40But that's just a general overview of the problem.
11:43Another major contributing factor to Resistance 3's commercial failure can be attributed to two other things,
11:49the Xbox 360's dominance and Call of Duty.
11:53By 2011, many folks had already chosen Xbox 360 as their platform,
11:58while the kids were gravitating more towards the Wii.
12:01And when all three Modern Warfare games caused Call of Duty to explode and become a global phenomenon,
12:06it's going to be a lot harder to get folks to drop their favorite first-person shooter
12:11and try a new first-person shooter,
12:13one that may not run as well or feel as great to play as something like Call of Duty.
12:18None of this is to say Resistance 3 is an objectively bad game.
12:21If anything, it was a victim of circumstance.
12:24And what really drove the final nail in the coffin was the game that came after.
12:29She's infected!
12:31What are you talking about? Let go of me!
12:34Let go of her, Private, or I will take your head off!
12:37In between the releases of Resistance 2 and Resistance 3,
12:41we got a PSP spinoff from Ben's studio in 2009 called Resistance Retribution.
12:46Though it didn't play like the mainline games on console,
12:49Retribution was and still is regarded as one of the most fun games released on PSP,
12:53and Sony wanted to try and replicate that success with their next handheld console.
12:58Eight months after the launch of Resistance 3, we saw Resistance Burning Skies.
13:03Released on PlayStation Vita and developed by Nihilistic Software,
13:07Burning Skies was quickly dismissed as the worst entry in the franchise
13:11due to its lackluster multiplayer, bland visuals, and forgettable story.
13:15If Resistance 3's commercial performance wasn't a sign of the times,
13:19Burning Skies ruined any chance of the IP continuing as normal.
13:23The beacon is on that tower!
13:25We've got to figure out a way to get it down!
13:28Despite all of this,
13:30Insomniac Games was still willing and ready to move forward with a Resistance 4.
13:35The company Insomniac has grown so big,
13:38now they have over 400 people!
13:41That's right!
13:41It's amazing!
13:43Yeah!
13:43Alas, this was not meant to be, as we would learn in 2021.
13:48In June 2021,
13:50ex-IGN editor and founder of Last Stand Media, Colin Moriarty,
13:54revealed that Insomniac had pitched Resistance 4 to Sony,
13:57but was rejected due to the number of post-apocalyptic games that were already in the works.
14:03Two projects related to the rejection included Naughty Dog's The Last of Us
14:07and Ben Studios' Days Gone,
14:09which would release in 2013 and 2019, respectively.
14:13I do think Sony is missing that kind of game.
14:16A Saints Row,
14:18or something like that.
14:20Some urban,
14:24gaudy,
14:25comical,
14:26over-the-top.
14:27This was reconfirmed by Insomniac founder Ted Price himself
14:31after his departure from Insomniac in February 2025.
14:34This bit of news would be expanded upon further
14:37after the departure of Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida,
14:40who served as president of Sony Interactive Entertainment between 2008 and 2019.
14:46In an interview conducted by Moriarty in February 2025,
14:50Moriarty asked Yoshida about Sony's departure from the first-person shooter genre,
14:54noting the dormancy of Sony IP,
14:57such as SOCOM,
14:58Killzone,
14:59and, of course,
15:00Resistance.
15:01Yoshida would explain that online gaming is a,
15:03quote,
15:04winner takes all space,
15:06end quote,
15:07in that when Call of Duty and Battlefield were dominating the market,
15:11Sony executives decided to turn away from the space.
15:13As Yoshida recalls,
15:15Sony internally recognized that they were known for great single-player games,
15:19but not great online service games,
15:22which shareholders kept pressing them to pursue.
15:24But as investments grew and the industry changed,
15:27Sony Interactive Entertainment would change and focus more
15:30on PC releases and single-player games,
15:33rather than online service games.
15:35I don't know,
15:36we'll see what happens.
15:37We're not gonna hear about it for a long time,
15:39so gird your loins,
15:40boys and girls.
15:41Yoshida's insight holds a ton of weight in regards to Resistance's future,
15:46or lack thereof.
15:47During Resistance's time,
15:49players would show up for the explosive campaign,
15:51but stayed for the fun multiplayer mode.
15:53You essentially got two games in one package,
15:56and Sony stuck with this format for not just Resistance,
15:59but Killzone and Uncharted as well.
16:01All three franchises saw their own critical and commercial success,
16:05yet none are remembered for their multiplayer.
16:08They're remembered more for their respective campaigns, first and foremost.
16:12Fast forward to today,
16:13and the only first-person shooter franchise that is still offering single-player and multiplayer components
16:18is Call of Duty.
16:19Most developers that make first-person shooters are typically sticking with just multiplayer,
16:24and often try to break into the online service market.
16:27As for single-player-centric first-person shooter games,
16:31the only AAA developers that have found success in that format
16:34are id Software with Doom,
16:36and Machine Games with Wolfenstein,
16:38both of which are owned by Bethesda,
16:40and have been around for a long time.
16:42You could make a case too for the RPG FPS Fallout,
16:45but for the most part,
16:46a lot of amazing single-player FPS games
16:49either wind up commercial failures like Immortals of Avium,
16:53or are finding their own success in the indie market like Ultra Kill.
17:04With that in mind,
17:06it's important that Sony recognizes the current market,
17:08and to do so,
17:09it's going to need to reflect and ask itself some questions.
17:13Some really tough questions.
17:14We in the PlayStation community need to do the same.
17:17In 2025,
17:19we are facing glaring issues in market saturation
17:21as more and more companies are trying to break into the space.
17:25If Resistance were to get a brand new game,
17:27would we show up like we did for Fall of Man in Resistance 2,
17:30or would the new game be largely ignored and buried by the competition,
17:34just as Resistance 3 was?
17:36If a new game were to release,
17:38would it be able to churn a profit from being only single-player,
17:41or would people be expecting a multiplayer component like they did back then?
17:45Would we all be okay with a Resistance game being only multiplayer?
17:49Heck, with every month being loaded with big releases,
17:52is there even any room for Resistance
17:54between what's already in the works at Insomniac
17:56and what the competition is working on right now?
17:59If we even start right now,
18:01would the IP even have any relevance
18:03a few years from the outcry that's coming and going now?
18:06I'd say that's a hell of an idea, Joe.
18:09And a hell of a way to get us all killed.
18:11These are all questions that none of us really have an answer to in the end.
18:15While it's easy to chalk up Resistance's untimely end
18:18to a couple of turns gone horribly wrong,
18:21it's also been so long since Resistance 3 and Burning Skies
18:25that it's hard to say if the IP has any future to begin with.
18:28It may as well be a brand new IP in the eyes of the current market,
18:32and that's a risk almost every AAA developer and publisher
18:35just does not want to take in this day and age.
18:37Sony especially.
18:39There have been acknowledgments on social media
18:41and in sizzle reels that the franchise did exist at one point in PlayStation's history,
18:45but outside of that,
18:46the games are just a blip of PS3 heritage
18:48that you can stream on PS5 and PS4
18:51while Retribution can be purchased and downloaded like a normal game.
18:55Pharrell wasn't acting alone.
18:57The government let him do this.
19:00They're desperate.
19:00What?
19:00Each one of these cubes gives them enough power to control a giant stink.
19:05Perhaps there is a chance for Resistance to come back,
19:08but in order to show Sony that people want this game,
19:11PlayStation fans are going to need to be more vocal and actively show up.
19:15It will probably take the same amount of effort the FGC showed
19:19for Marvel vs. Capcom in 2021.
19:22It's been 13 years.
19:2413 years since Marvel vs. Capcom 2 has been re-released in any way.
19:29And that was a whole years-long endeavor that required several notable streamers to participate,
19:35hordes of dedicated fans showing up to televised events with signs,
19:39constant hashtags across social media,
19:42support through merchandise from external partners like Arcade1Up,
19:45and developers voicing their unrelenting passion and desire for said IP to return.
19:50It was not an easy feat.
19:52And after all of that, we finally got a collection of Marvel vs. Capcom games in 2024.
19:58Seven long years after Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite nearly killed the franchise.
20:04Can Resistance fans do the same?
20:06What do you think?
20:07Because if we truly want Resistance to come back,
20:09we might have to do exactly what MVC fans did,
20:12but twice or thrice as hard.
20:14And as most hardcore PlayStation fans should know by now,
20:18Sony doesn't like going back to the well,
20:20and they rarely ever do.
20:22Perhaps with Hideaki Nishino acting as the new CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment,
20:27maybe there is a chance.
20:28Perhaps with the supposed internal talks of reviving Sly Cooper and Ape Escape,
20:32maybe there is hope.
20:33Perhaps with the new leadership at Insomniac Games,
20:37maybe we can get a break from Marvel and Ratchet.
20:39But only time will tell.
20:41I'm sorry, sir.
20:42I'm taking our squad to Bryce Canyon to extract Malachi.
20:45This isn't a debate, lieutenant.
20:47I won't sacrifice a senile leader for a scientist.
20:49You're going back to base, and that's...
20:51Did you play any of the Resistance games for yourself?
20:54If so, what was your favorite memory with the franchise?
20:57Let us know down in the comments,
20:59and be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great videos every day.
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