Sony Acquires Haven Studios, the New Developer Led By Jade Raymond

Yes, just what we want. More live service games.

I honestly expected this to happen in the future when Haven's game released and if it did well but it happening now was certainly a surprise that knocked me on my ass 😅. Still no more Japanese talent acquired through 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Sony doubling down on live service games after Gran Turismo's stellar reception.

Acquisition news is much more interesting when we've actually seen what the developer's working on...

That was quick. Guess they must've liked the game they're making.

live service game just terrible

Can't say I'm excited for this since I haven't really seen anything from Haven studios yet but it makes sense with the way how Sony approached them before

Don't know why they did this so early. Could've waited for the game to actually come out and see how it was received before committing to an acquisition. It's not like Haven Studios had a long list of buyers waiting in line.

Who?

Yknow if they just isolate the live service sector of PlayStation in Bungie and Haven then I’m honestly down. That’s def not gonna happen but I can pretend to be optimistic.

This is a bit of an odd choice for this one considering they are still a completely unproven entity. I mean their game might be good but we know little to nothing about it. It also goes completely against Sony's usual way of doing acquisitions. (Working with a team for a while in a partnership capacity for a while before talking about acquisition)

Weird choice.

As a Canadian, I am happy to see more Canadian studios.

Sony must have really liked what they saw to buy them without seeing how the game does commercially.

They gave Lucid and Ready at Dawn both a test which they failed.

Housemarque and Bluepoint killed it and were then acquired.

I am curious what Haven is working on.

Maybe wait until Haven proves itself as a competent studio before blowing money on them, yeah?

@RBMango technically since they don't have a game yet, they might have been cheaper now, than after the game goes live and it does well commercially? That's my logic for Sony's decision.

Just as I suspected, there's a pattern, have you all noticed that after an event whether that be a State of Play or PS Centric Showcase, shortly afterwards they announce an acquisition?
Since yesterday I had a feeling an acquisition announcement was immanent, quite surprised that it's the Haven Studio, figured they'd wait until after their game releases before they acquire them, Sony must have a lot of faith in this project.

I guess this wasn't a snap decision but also feels different than their other acquisitions as usually those studios have been out there for a while and been churning out games of a certain standard.

Either they needed more capital to finish the game, or Sony is just really impressed with what they've seen and don't want to risk someone else making an offer and losing them (or maybe someone else DID make an offer and Sony had to react).

Hopefully Sony knows what they're doing here.

Let's hope Haven are better than Polyphony Digital at keeping their live service games online.

Suggest Sony bought them now before the game was released as their stock price will presumably be lower. Wonder if Deviation games or firewalk studios is next then

Sony must have been really impressed to aquire them so early. Makes sense though if they are really sure of the games quality and the team behind it. If they'd waited until they had released the game and it became a massive hit they would have ended up paying a lot more for them. As we don't know the money being talked about is hard to say if it's the right call.

@NomNom - Exactly, it'd be no different to acquiring Ember Labs, being a team of 20 or so people with only one game under their belt, they likely wouldn't cost very much at all to acquire, most likely less than $5 Million if I had to estimate, so I imagine acquiring Haven Studio would have cost far less than Ember Labs.

I love this move. I think Jade Raymond is super talented and a good fit for PlayStation!

Nothing more enticing than hot vapour being expelled from corporate arse.

I don't know what to think - as they haven't produced anything yet! So long as it's not more live service crap, should be alright? Who knows....

Damn it Sony! Purchase Square Enix 😔

@awp69 do we already know that the new game is a live service one?

Guessing Deviation Games and Firewalk are next since they need shooter devs.

@BeerIsAwesome Well if it's under the WWS branch, it's not like Bungie.

@ShogunRok Studio has literally no game under their name that's been fully revealed yet, but the head of it is an Ex-AC boss so I already know the open world will be fun to fumble around

I guess Sony saw the progress on the title and decided they needed to own the studio. That’s got to be positive?

Also with this being a new studio what does it matter they are making a live service game? Not taking away from other developments here.

It's barely news, they haven't released any games yet for obvious reasons and the one they're working on was already Playstation exclusive. Let's see how their game fares when it comes out and only then will we know if it is a good acquisition

@Snake_V5 I don't think they're acquiring a publisher. Plus leave square alone. It's not doing so hot as of late. I prefer Capcom.

A bit risky given some of the projects she has been involved in more recently and flighty nature (I think I’m thinking about the right woman) and the fact this studio hasn’t produced anything yet. Still, the more companies focusing on exclusive games (for all platforms) the better as far as I’m concerned. Make games the best they can be.

Deviation Games next Sony need a cod killer.

I will use this thread to do a confession. I had a big crush for Jade Raymond back in the day...there I said it!

Anyway, hope they make good games for the Playstation family! It does seem like a talented studio!

I'll make an opinion whether this is good or bad when we see their game, so it's a meh from me.

Can't say I'm thrilled with this announcement; this studio has exactly zero games developed under their belt and now has to ensure they live up to being worthy of acquisition with their first release. The fact that they're headed by someone whose last projects were cancelled after 6 wasteful years (EA Motive) or didn't even get off the ground (Google) doesn't inspire much confidence.

That and coupled with the fact this team is only developing GaaS titles that aren't even PlayStation exclusive means I can't get excited about this at all.

Zero hype for what this studio is developing being a live service game, and this purchase really means nothing. Its a studio of like 30 people and they were already making a game for Sony. Sony practically just bought an indie studio.

Plus if Raymond decides to up and leave that studio, Sony practically bought an empty shell.

People will honestly complain about anything

@Ken_Kaniff They were over 75 a while back I believe. They might be on 100 now.

Not interested in live service games, I hope sony would just make single player games with additional multiplayer later, like ghost of tsushima legends.

@RevGaming They would do even better if purchased by Sony, they would have all the money from the purchase.

Why so much negativity here ???
You don’t even know what they are working on seriously. 🙄 your weird guys
Whatever. They helped build the studio and I guess it somehow makes sense.
We ll see how that goes.

@Jacko11 they want Sony to buy up third party developers and hurt the gaming industry like Microsoft is doing now.

@RevGaming Just looked it up to be for sure. They are up from 30 to a whopping 54!

Cool - more decent devs and studios are always worth and getting the cheque book out early is a sign they like what happening there.

There is a lot of Dev talent in Canada, so having a Sony team there that can attract some of the better talent in the area has to be worthwhile too.

Be interesting to see what they are working on, no matter what it is.

I hope if they acquire someone else then it's a single player focused studio.

@JJ2 This. Just look at how pathetically negative the community is. It's a new studio working on a brand new IP with a staff of industry veterans. You dont need to be massively hyped since we haven't seen anything yet, but if you spin this negatively in any way you're just a sad cynical person.

@Snake_V5 Square has money. They don't need Sony's money. All Sony can offer is their movie/TV making expertise, which in this case only Capcom might be interested in. Oh and EVO.

I am not surprised by this but I am surprised it didn’t happen much earlier though

@DrClayman imagine almost all of PlayStation games being online only

@Ken_Kaniff On LinkedIN says 71. They will probably get to 100 before the release their game.

@JJ2 Well Sony is working on 10 live service games include what Bungie is working on and that's at least 2-3 more, now you add Jade's game to the mix and we have a Live service festival.

@get2sammyb Can't wait for people to complain when they get Firewalk and Deviation because they lack shooters (Bungie not enough), but because it's multiplayer and not the typical SP narrative game, they won't like it.

Kind of hoping Ember Labs and Sloclap are next.

@Shepherd_Tallon "I mean fair enough when Sony get it wrong let's call them out"

Not even that dude, have you seen some of the comments on GT7 posts? If is something negative you have to do your best to turn it into a positive!

@get2sammyb It's understandable to be negative about live service especially given in just a few months we've seen big issues with games like Battlefield 2042, Halo Infinite, Babylon's Fall, Chocobo GP, GT7, etc. that stem from going live service.

"They got no game under their belt" Neither does The Initiative, yet for whatever reason people were hyping them up for quite some time, some on this very site at one point were claiming The Initiative was Xbox's 'best studio' DESPITE 'Not having no game under their belt'.

Thats good. Another first party studio that can support the others to help get games out quicker.

@Juanalf
First I think live services is rather vague but I don’t like the idea of GaaS. However I think Haven is working on an original concept.
If I don’t like what they do then whatever I don’t care where Sony put their investment but there’s no point hating on a new studio for no reason. I don’t think they are working on one game and then disappear would they. Building a studio from the ground up is a good thing in my book and we don’t know how they’ll be doing in the future.
Again it’s about a studio not just one game.

Edit
I read Sony asked them to work on 3 projects they have.

I don't really know what to make of this because the studio hasn't released or revealed a game. Sony must have seen something they really like from them to grab them this fast. They usually wait to see how well a release does first.

Not quite Sega...

@BeerIsAwesome They are a PlayStation studios team I think, Bungie are not.

Wow, Sony must be impressed with what they are seeing to buy this studio. Let’s hope they played there cards right.

@AFCC You're stunning and brave, it can't have been easy for you to say that.

@get2sammyb Yep, this one is not For the Players (TM)

This sounds terrible right off the back of the news about the 10 live service games & GT 7 now they announce they've bought this studio headed by someone that's worked for Ubisoft & EA 🙈

You guys don’t even give live services games a chance before trashing them. you guys no better than the Xbox fanboys that be saying they don’t play single player one and done games.

I'm disappointed in this to be honest. There's no picture of Jade Raymond in this article.

Wow sony is on a aquisition spree.playstation aint. Playing around.smart aquisition by the .g.o.a.t. 🐐 👑 of. Gaming .word up son

@Titntin
Yes I like that they have studios in different parts of the world. Canada 👍🏻

Sony must really like what they see to make an acquisition before the studios first game releases.

It’s usually a much longer courting process with multiple game releases first.

I suppose this is a sign of Sony having confidence in this new studio, which is probably a good thing for us gamers.

Why is Jade Raymond brought up when mentioning this studio? She's not a creative, and she hasn't worked on anything of note in 10+ years.

@DominusPlatypus because if the game is actually good then Haven might have enough money to continue being independent or there may be interest from other buyers raising the price of the company.

Sony going for the low hanging fruits while M$ is buying the heavy hitters

@ShogunRok
Well we know what activision is working on and that,s not overwhelming. I bett its good because Sony is never buying when its not promising.

@nomither6
Never underestimate the lower fruit. Its often sweeter than the top ones.

@Apfelschteiner pahaha. I love when people get into my joking way of life. Thanks for that...

P.s. it was super hard

Give me a game to play that's stellar and I'll certainly care but for now, I've no opinion really.

@JJ2 wtf is going on with the community here at push square at the mo? Just having a rare break from elden ring so i thought i would catch up with whats happening and everybodys on a downer about just about everything..i think this is great news for us all and i cant wait to see what game is on its way..

Say what you want about Jade Raymond but she going on stage drunk remains the most memorable thing to ever happen at the video game awards

I think this is a potentially smart move from Sony. Time will tell of course, but they have scooped up yet another small, creative, talented development studio here.

Something big is happening at Playstation and the coming years are likely to be very interesting indeed

A lot of comments mentioning the game but I think Sony was after the technology behind the game. I'm thinking the game engine or maybe some other technology that could be of great benefit to Sony and their studios going forward. That was the case with Sony's recent acquisitions of Bungie and Nixxes, so I'm imagining it's close to the same here.

Honestly I don't think Sony did it because the studio was "cheap" since they haven't shipped a game yet. I mean they splurged $3.6 billion on Bungie. They must've really wanted the infrastructure or whatever being built for this game. I just hope they put it, and the studio to good use.. coming from a paying customer standpoint.

All the best to Jade Raymond, but I'm not interested in a live service game. It's unlikely to be a hit. Maybe they've figured out a gimmick but I'm personally so over these types of games.

@MonkeyGibs Battlefront 2? Far Cry 4? Assassin's Creed Unity? Watchdogs?

Two of those she was managing director on. Not saying it's prolific or amazing, but she's actually been involved in some stuff in the last 10 years, just not front and centre like this (maybe that's good?).

The fact Herman said "we will never stop making single player games like TLoU, GoW, GoT and Horizon" makes me happy lol. Jade Raymond has held the highest office in games and tech and flat out said Sony just hits different. No company is perfect. But I see the amount of hate around GT7 (game also reviewed great every reviewer noted the crazy amount of content for the asking price) and get a little saddened. Sony is Nintendo quality with less baffling decisions regarding IPs and their dormancy. Her comments along with Herman's should give everyone some big picture perspective. They are a huge company who enjoys profit but also really loves games. Tl;Dr 😂

Another studio to work on another always online game with expensive micro transactions like GT7?

She has not had a great track record since Assassin Creed… but I guess wait and see

I rather they buy Ember Lab.

@nessisonett similar to the avatar photo you selected for your profile? Just kidding 😊

@velio84 'Shaping up to be divisive' - what a load of hyperbolic nonsense.

To me it's an unproven studio so there is very high risk here, the individual devs have worked on games like the Sims, Assassin's creed, Star Wars Battlefront, Tomb raider etc. Live service games as well, £70 game's only to be sold in game crap. Bungie excellent example of that selling you weapons (gameplay) & taking away paid for content, so I don't blame people seeing live service games as cancer.

@Northern_munkey it's always been the same with gamers. They tend to be quite extreme with most issues. My "theory" is that they want to escape from reality and their everyday problems when they play video games and all these decisions or mistakes that companies make deprive them of that.

All these buy outs will affect gamer's pockets one way or another. I'm now considering buying a second hand Xbox X so to plan for releases such as Starfield and potential Fall Out. Unless they decide it's too big a sell for just one platform.

These comments man...yikes. we get it. Y'all hate Gaas games...

If they're confident enough in the project to jump this early, that can only be a good sign. People are so quick to judge these days. It's ridiculous.

@daveofduncan @naruball you know what i cant understand is when gamers knock sony for not buying developers/game studios etc saying that sony's losing the non existent console war blah,blah,blah...sony buys developers/game studios and the same gamers start knocking sony for buying the wrong companies or investing in the wrong type of games...its almost as if some people exist only to be miserable and negative and then try to make everybody else like them..so they dont feel quite so bad about themselves..any way i'll be home in about 2 hours and then back into elden ring for the evening..

@Northern_munkey that's the internet for ya

Edit: oh, and apparently if you don't agree with them you're obviously working for Sony. Because that makes sense.

@RBMango i'm sure they've seen the game and its progress. the studio is made up with veteran talent that has worked in the game industry for a while.

So-called "hardcore gamers" can attack or dismiss GaaS all they want. They still offer countless of hours of enjoyment to tens of millions of gamers all over the world (Fortnite, Fall Guys come to mind).

I mean, not every game should cater to your needs.

would love to see them purchase Devotion and Firewalk next. people wanted new fresh studios making new games , we are getting that , and people still find stuff to complain about before we even get to see what they are even working on. there are a few other studios i wouldn't mind seeing them partner up with as well , Rebel Wolves studio would be an interesting one.

@naruball There is a thing in common between those GAAS you just mentioned: they only sell cosmetics and actual progression rewards are earned in game, IF there are any other than the joy of winning.

I'll toss FFXIV out there too as a GAAS I actively play, and likely accounts for more collective time played than all other games I play in a given year combined, but again, progress is earned via gameplay, not by being held back and nickled and dimed into buying high performance cars (yes I'm being very specific right now.)

It's not easy to make a good GAAS, and it's not easy to come up with a good monetization strategy for one either. The fact that GT7 is Sony's idea of a GAAS makes me very skeptic of their future plans for them. Although I hear Destiny does it well enough (have zero experience with it) so maybe Bungie can teach Sony to stop the [bleep] and to do it right.

@Northern_munkey
Not everyone my friend. Gaming still excites me and I'm still, very positive about our industry and the creative games that are being made and I do my best to try and spread that feeling in the comments I post. I think there are many more happier people, but its more likely to be the people who have an 'axe to grind' that are likely to post, so the comments tend to be over- whelmingly down and negative.
You are not the only one who sees this and I commend you for stating it as you feel - I'm often criticised for positivity in here, as if somehow positivity makes me responsible for whatever that person is grandstanding about that day.

Stay positive. Across the wide spectrum of gamers, those who feel so entitled and negative are a tiny percentage of people enjoying this media. Sometimes its hard to remember the vast bulk of them would never comment about this stuff on line, we see a tiny un representative sample of players here.

@Titntin 👍