With 18 first-party development studios part of its portfolio, PlayStation Studios can afford to give its audiences a little bit of everything. But, as it turns out, PlayStation isn’t done snatching up studios just yet.
According to SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan, the company has more studio acquisitions in the works.
The latest information about Sony Interactive Entertainment’s plans comes from the official PlayStation podcast. Sony has acquired a handful of notable studios over the past 12 months, including Housemarque, Bluepoint Games, and Bungie, the latter of which will play a huge role in the tech giant’s plans of launching several live-service games between now through 2026.
Ryan explained that SIE is growing its studios “organically” and that it is “growing through acquisition”, adding that Sony has “acquired five studios during the course of 2021” and it has “more planned” to the point that it will get PlayStation “into a virtuous cycle where success begets success.
Sony has put its newly acquired studios to good use. Firesprite Games is currently assisting Guerilla Games with Horizon Call of the Mountain while working on a AAA horror title using Unreal Engine 5 and Housemarque is reportedly the leading candidate to work on the Twisted Metal reboot. Meanwhile, the sky is the limit for Bluepoint Games after proving that it can handle large-scale projects like the PS5-exclusive remake, Demon’s Souls.
With Sony’s older studios also working on their own thing, PlayStation owners don’t have to worry about first-party games for the foreseeable future.
Speaking of first-party exclusives, Ryan reaffirmed Sony’s decision not to add its best-selling titles to the revamped PS Plus, saying that it is “going to stick to the approach that we have and has served us well under many years now.”
Ryan’s comments about PlayStation Studios’ acquisition plans line up with what Kinda Funny Games’ Greg Miller and GamesBeat’s Jeff Grub said earlier. Both reported that Sony will announce a new studio acquisition soon. In particular, the former alluded to a buyout as part of the three big news items that Sony was going to reveal, which we now know included its plans for the PS Plus subscription service.
Despite the rumors, Sony has not shown indications that it’s close to securing a deal for a new studio, but for all we know, Ubisoft could be next with others coming soon.
