Sony acquires Firewalk Studios – now owns 20 PlayStation developers
Sony acquires Firewalk Studios – now owns 20 PlayStation developers
Sony's latest acquisition brings its PlayStation Studios total to 20
Sony has agreed to acquire Firewalk Studios, a AAA multiplayer developer that was already working on a live service game for PS5 and PC.
The studio was formed by several Bungie veterans – a developer Sony now also owns – and has almost 150 employees.
Firewalk Studios is the third live service developer that Sony has acquired in the last two years, alongside Haven Studios and Bungie.
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Sony buys Firewalk Studios
💰 Sony has acquired another developer
🔫 This time its Firewalk Studios, which is working on a live service game for PS5
👋 The studio is made up of ex-Bungie veterans
💪 Sony now has 20 PlayStation Studios in total
“We’ve had the privilege of working with ProbablyMonsters and Firewalk for several years and our teams share the same ambition to create meaningful experiences for gamers," said head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst on the PlayStation Blog.
“Firewalk’s innovative approach to connected storytelling and its commitment to high-quality gameplay continues to exceed our expectations,” added Hust. “I think fans will be very pleased when they see what Firewalk has in store for them.”
While Sony snapping up a relatively young developer might seem insignificant, it does show its staunch opposition to Microsoft’s pending $69bn Activision Blizzard deal for what it really is.
Sony now owns 20 studios that were all snapped up to produce exclusive content for PlayStation. And with Microsoft promising to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation and other platforms for at least 10 years, it appears Sony isn’t taking regulators’ warnings over monopolization to heart.
From a business perspective, it’s obvious why Sony wants to keep Activision Blizzard out of Microsoft’s hands as it protects Sony’s position as the clear market leader. However, consumers always benefit from the competition as it forces companies to go the extra mile to please and attract new users.
Here’s the full list of studios that Sony now owns:
Bend Studio
Bluepoint Games
Firesprite
Firewalk Studios
Guerrilla Games
Haven Studios
Housemarque
Insomniac Games
London Studio
Media Molecule
Naughty Dog
Nixxes Software
Pixelopus
Polyphony Digital
San Diego Studio
Santa Monica Studio
Savage Game Studios
Sucker Punch Productions
Team Asobi
Valkyrie Entertainment
PlayStation Studios are responsible for producing many of the best PS5 games and the best PS4 games to play on PS5. Sony has made some shrewd acquisitions over the years as it continues to strengthen its exclusive portfolio of games.
And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, it’s hard to sympathize with the market leader when it’s trying to block Microsoft – which is widely regarded as being third place when compared to Sony and Nintendo – from essentially doing the same thing.