As Sony slowly pivots from its massive billion-dollar live-service venture as it deals with the increasing costs of making video games, it’s now turning to external partners in other parts of the globe to try and beef up its library. In particular, Sony appears to be trying to secure business partnerships and collaborations with prominent video game developers in South Korea.
Shift Up, the developer of the upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive, Stellar Blade, was the first Korean developer to sign a formal agreement with Sony Interactive Entertainment. In doing so, Shift Up is the first Korean second-party studio by Sony. What this means is that, while Shift Up isn’t contractually bound to make games exclusively for the PlayStation 5, Sony’s presumed now-majority ownership stake in the company does afford it some influence. Finally, NCSoft and Sony recently announced that they’re teaming up to create “high-quality, impactful entertainment experiences for players everywhere.”
However, it appears Shift Up and NCSoft are just the first of the potentially many dominoes to fall. Sony is reportedly seeking partnerships with other Korea-based video game developers, specifically, Neowiz and Com2uS.
While PlayStation 5 currently holds a massive lead over Xbox Series S/X in sales, Sony lags behind in investments in South Korea. Microsoft, in particular, has a head start over Sony in South Korea after working closely with Neowiz and Pearl Abyss. We can only imagine how Microsoft would prefer to strengthen their relationship with the said companies. This means Sony will either have to kick rocks or work harder to secure deals with Pearl Abyss and Neowiz.
Ideally, PlayStation fans would want Neowiz as another second-party developer for Sony. After its success with Lies of P, which is definitely getting a sequel and more post-launch content, Neowiz emerges as the only “other” studio worthy of working on Bloodborne 2.
Given that Soulsborne fans have asked for Sony and FromSoftware to revisit the genre-spawning action RPG for several years (it also doesn’t help that FromSoftware will likely have its hands full on Elden Ring and Armored Core games for the foreseeable future), outsourcing the property to a studio like Neowiz wouldn’t be the worst idea.
As its bigger, more well-known studios start to command bigger budgets, Sony has to find new ways to bring in unique (and if possible, exclusive) games to its library without spending billions acquiring established developers. Investing in lesser-known countries such as South Korea, China, and India are good examples of finding economical ways of making games. Asia, in general, has a lot of untapped potential.
If nothing else, Sony’s investment in other countries, while profit-centric, will result in unique games based on different cultures. As diverse as video games have become, most are too focused on the United States, Europe, and Japan. This “fear” of venturing outside what’s established leads to less innovation and fewer unique perspectives.
By investing outside its usual areas, Sony is opening itself up to welcome surprises that could, ultimately, help diversify its first-party library, much to the benefit of millions of PlayStation owners around the world.
Sony’s China Hero Project investment is about to pay off with the release of Black Myth: Wukong in Summer 2024. The upcoming Soulslike title impressed with its latest trailer at Gamescom 2023. According to a leaker, Black Myth: Wukong plays a lot like if God of War and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice had a baby.
