Sony has announced its acquisition of Firesprite Games, the developer behind PlayStation 4 titles The Persistence, The Playroom, and The Playroom VR. It becomes the 14th developer part of PlayStation Studios, with many who work at the studio previously part of SIE Studio Liverpool.
Speaking on the PlayStation Blog, Hermen Hulst said: "Firesprite is a creative and ambitious studio that is exceptional at building incredible experiences that truly showcase the potential of our hardware. The team’s technical and creative capabilities will be paramount to growing our stellar catalogue of exclusive games, and I think you’ll be excited for what’s to come."
The developer is comprised of 250 employees, and managing director Graeme Ankers explains how Sony first allowed the team the "creative freedom to explore, innovate, and release a survival horror game we are immensely proud of. Now, as a first party studio, we know we have the full support of PlayStation in furthering our heritage of combining creativity and technical innovation to offer some truly unique experiences for PlayStation fans."
Firesprite Games is now Sony's largest UK-based studio; it houses more employees than London Studio and Media Molecule combined. The team is already hard at work on a few new exclusive titles too, as Hermen Hulst states over on GamesIndustry.biz: "They're very experimental in their approach to game development. I think the combination of that legacy, and that entrepreneurial spirit... that's a great foundation for us to collaborate on the few great exclusive game projects that we're working on together."
Earlier this year, job listings suggested Firesprite Games may be working on a PSVR spin-off of the Horizon series. "It is just the right time for them to join us and double down on the projects that we're doing with them. To solidify the relationship and to give them a proper seat at the table where we have formal knowledge exchange with other studios. They already have some strong ties with certain first-party studios, but I want to be clear that we want them to lead the development of several game projects, rather than helping other teams out, even though they have collaborating with us before," said Hermen Hulst.
Jim Ryan adds: "We are delighted to welcome Firesprite into the PlayStation family. We have a rich history of working with the founders of Firesprite and are excited to grow the PlayStation presence in Liverpool. The portfolio of titles Firesprite has developed has continually demonstrated the team’s ability to transcend traditional gameplay experiences and brilliantly showcase the potential of our hardware."
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 60
Good for Sony.
If the Persistence 2 ever releases, it will be PlayStation exclusive then
Very nice. This news won't blow minds or anything, but it's good to see PlayStation continuing to back VR and experimental creativity after the criticism they've been getting for not doing enough of that recently.
Looks like we'll be getting big VR games.
Irony that this Studio was opened by former Studio Liverpool Devs (which Sony closed years ago) haha. Also that new Wipeout Game might happen
What happened to the blue point?
This is very interesting for VR projects. Be great to see what they can come up with themselves and also their ability to support other PS studios.
I wouldn't be surprised if they're the team working on the rumored Wipeout game for PS5 and PSVR2 and/or collaborating with Team Asobi on their next Astro game.
Very excited by this investment from risk-averse 'third party narrative driven' Sony. The emphasis on experimental creativity is promising.
Very exciting and welcome to the PlayStation family! Hulst/Ryan are on a studio purchasing spree. Bluepoint next?
Well this is certainly not helping them convince people that they care about Japanese games.
No mention of the iconic Playstation racing game then? Then again, I doubt Mr Ryan even knows what that is. Disappointing.
Persistence is one of my favourite PSVR games, so I hope they are making a sequel for Sony's next headset.
Preferably a hybrid game so flatscreeners can enjoy it too.
I am quivering with excitement at this news.
I read somewhere that Firesprite houses a lot of devs that worked on Wipeout.
Really cool if we could get a new Wipeout game.
The old leaders closed down Liverpool Studio so it's great to see them righting a wrong, plus investing in the UK development scene. Would not surprise me if their making a new WipEout, heck their logo looks like it could be the name of a team.
I’m enjoying all these preshow announcements Sony are making. Really expecting some big things tomorrow.
Bluepoint aquisition is what i want.word up son
Another smaller acquisition that I hope pays dividends in the years to come. A more experimental PlayStation is very welcome.
Now where is the Bluepoint announcement?
Not exactly a mind-blowing acquisition, but one that certainly makes sense for PlayStation to make, definitely makes the return of WipeOut more likely now, and The Persistance was quite a unique game, an interesting blend of Bioshock & Dead Space. I wouldn't mind seeing another First-Person Horror Game from these guys.
The studio is also working on a Star Citizen game thingy (that PC infinite Beta game). Wonder how that will go now it's a Sony Studio. Sure they have to finish their contract...
Clearly they bought them because of the VR so it makes a ton of sense considering Sony are still sticking with VR. Really hoping we get the reveal of Bluepoint being bought by them tomorrow and that they're working on a remake of MGS.
The announcement of the acquisition of Firesprite Games confirms one thing in my mind going forward, and that is that we probably shouldn't expect acquisition announcements whenever Sony does an event (during the event specifically), so far every time Sony has announced an acquisition, it's always before or after an event, but never during an event, with the exception being Insomniac Games during Gamescom 2019, but overall the announcements are pretty random.
I bring this up because I think and I could be wrong, but I think that we shouldn't expect an acquisition announcement to occur during future events, unless it's a HUGE acquisition. As such I wouldn't go into this event expecting them to announce the acquisition of Bluepoint, perhaps after the event, but not during the event.
I don't think Sony are aiming to make a spectacle of an acquisition the way Microsoft does, by which I mean; don't expect Sony to come out on a stage and make a big deal of an acquisition, it just doesn't seem to be their style.
@sanderson72 Yeah why would he, he's only been with the company for 26 years and was there for the European launch of the PS1 with Wipeout as one of it's launch titles. 🙄
@Tielo - They will likely have to see it through to the end, just like Insomniac Games did with that Oculus game they were working on at the time they were acquired, Stormland I think it was called.
I don't know if anyone has read the article yet, but Gamesindustry.biz did an interview with Hulst and the Firespirite heads about what this acquisition means. They're also confirmed to be working on two games: a 'game-changing huge multiplayer shooter and an ambitious dark narrative blockbuster adventure'.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-09-08-why-playstation-is-buying-firesprite-one-of-the-uks-fastest-growing-games-studios
Man I can't wait for psvr 2
Great to see this commitment to VR. Until the market is large enough to support lots of AAA games the responsibility is on platform holders to fund the way. The VR market will grow quickly as more and more people just get the chance to experience it.
And i just started playing the persistence, it's pretty good so i'm down with this, looking forward for what psvr2 will offer.
Yeah Jim, i really trust you with new UK studios after what you did to Psygnosis.
These people are gonna be out of a job in a few years.
Betting 250 jobs on PSVR will go as well as betting them on a Vita game.
@JustPlainLoco That is what I expect but maybe there is a possibility Star Citizen itself can come to PS5 now there is a sort of connection...if the game is ever finished.
Nice move by Sony.
@sanderson72 I'm sure he does. His background with PlayStation spans back to 1994 and he worked out of the London office for decades. I'd hazard he's very familiar with WipEout.
All the people mentioning "they were bought for VR" clearly isn't seeing all the PR and some of what the devs are saying they're working on.
Wow, great news! Curious though why it wasn't announced tomorrow instead. Perhaps Sony doesn't want to detract from bluepoint in case that is happening.
Please just work on a new WipEout.
This is great. It’s become a big studio working on multiple projects too now. I don’t want to sound pedant but that’s how you do acquisition. The best of their work is to come.
@tameshiyaku
I haven’t seen this sort of announcement on PlayStation show cases. Not really their style. Better show games.
@VillaRosa-LVPx Motorstorm is - was epic in 3D. I hope they bring a new Motorstorm with VR surpoort for the PS5
Persistence is a very good experience, in particular in VR. It's so tense
I suppose the only reason that Sony would announce an acquisition on stage would be if they were to show Metal Gear Solid being remade by Bluepoint games or something like that, THEN announce that they had acquired them. That would be awesome!
looking forward to seeing what these new studios will bring to the ps5.
With this acquisition I’m starting to believe the rumors that Sony London next game isn’t a vr title but a normal AAA game.
looks like certain part of the community wont be happy,and those are the ones expecting a big studio acquisition
@dasd2 Price went up because of the twitter mistake.
Bit of an odd one here.
This first seemed like an acquisition out of left field, then I did some research and realized that Sony is basically just re-acquiring Liverpool Studio.
I don't love all these acquisitions going on, by all companies. At least in this case it seems to be one that has very close ties to Sony and it isn't an entire publisher like Bethesda but still would rather see studios, publishers, etc, be able to remain independent.
As far as games though, it'll be interesting to see what it produces. Certainly could provide some good content for next generation of PSVR.
@4kgk2
Which would be a good thing.
@Gamer83 I personally love acquisitions. I feel like 1st party releases are always better than the multi platform games. Better quality on all my consoles.
@JustPlainLoco Trust if they could spend billions on an acquisition they'd make a 'big deal' of it.
Making one of this doesn't make sense. These guys are a talented team but a small one. They'll no doubt be focusing on psvr2 games going forward. Sony isn't spending AAA money on 'experimental'.
@Nepp67 At least Sony don't seem as USA focused as they did.
@Bleachedsmiles 250 people isn’t a small team theses guys are about the same size as Insomniac lol.
@4kgk2 sorry meant a small acquisition compared to zenimax. But yeah 250 people for the guys that made the persistence is still pretty surprising to be honest... I just checked out their site and they're doing something with star citizen. If that leads to getting star citizen on ps5 it could be a nice little consolation for starfield....assuming star citizen ever gets finished.
@Gamer83 technically with this studio, Sony is spending money to require the devs they lost when they closed Studio Liverpool. We'll likely continue to see games come out on PC secondary. It won't be a huge loss to Nintendo or Microsoft.
@get2sammyb Yeah, given Sony shut down Studio Liverpool in 2012, I suppose I can let Jim-bob off this one. Maybe he might even redeem himself (if only a little)
In a statement at the time:
"a history of producing genre defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, Formula 1 and WRC and this decision will have no impact of the role that the North West Studio Group will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms."
Not sure who produces the WRC games now (?) but seeing things such as Motorstorm and WipEout mentioned as being important to the "future of all PlayStation platforms."
Heck, Studio Liverpool even did the best looking F1 game on the PS3. Unfortunately, someone thought it was a good idea to shut them down and now they're trying to re-recruit them?
Sony is in a baffling state of their own creation at the moment.
@Bleachedsmiles Last I heard Star Citizen was likely to have a tough release on the same day as Half Life 3 😉
@anoyonmus And hopefully PSVR2 compatible!!!
@Bleachedsmiles - "Trust if they could spend billions on an acquisition they'd make a 'big deal' of it." I would like to point you to the following comment I made "I think that we shouldn't expect an acquisition announcement to occur during future events, unless it's a HUGE acquisition". My point was that they wouldn't make a big deal of it UNLESS it was a BIG Acquisition.
Additionally I would like to refer you to the article provided by @RBMango in which said article, it states that Firesprite are currently working on two big upcoming games, both of which don't sound like they fit into that VR category, then again if that latest rumor is to be believed, Sony are trying to build games that can be played through VR as an option if you want it, meaning you can play through many upcoming games in VR if you want to. So while I do believe they were acquired to create PSVR2 experiences, I don't think it's fair to assume that's all they'll be working on.
@NomNom
Yeah, I looked more into the background of the studio after seeing similar comments. Like I said, I don't love acquisitions but at least this one, like when Sony purchased Insomniac and like Playground Games with MS and Next Level Games with Nintendo, makes sense because of the close ties between the studio and platform holder.
@4kgk2 Insomniac has over 350 employees. So they're much bigger. Though 250 is a sizable studio.
Happy for Sony, even though I don't play VR games.
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