Sony first-party studio Firesprite is moving to a new office – and an absolutely gigantic one at that. The team, which currently occupies the roughly ~2,000 square foot Vanilla Factory, is moving to the former Bibby Line headquarters in Liverpool, UK’s Ropewalks district – and it’s taking over the entire ~50,000 square foot building. That’s absolutely enormous!
The building, named Duke & Parr, actually includes a former library – but it’s all been converted into a modern office space. Looking at some of the photos, it does look like an incredible location – there’s even a basement! Apparently, developer Firesprite has signed a ten year lease, so looks set to occupy the property for the foreseeable future.
It’s just another signal of the studio’s outrageous and rapid growth. Firesprite is already Sony’s biggest developer in the UK, and is working on multiple projects – including Horizon Call of the Mountain, a purported narrative horror game, and an alleged Twisted Metal reboot. Lots to look forward to from the promising new team, then.
[source investliverpool.com]
Comments 30
Good lord, that is massive.
How many games at once can we expect from these guys? I've got the feeling their output this gen is going to be scary, Insomniac levels.
Great to see. Good to see Sony building up smaller studios. In the midst of all the talk of acquisitions it's far more gratifying to see studios build themselves up in this way. They're just over the water from me too - Best of luck to them
A lot of Sony studios probably gonna have 600 to 800 employees to work on both single player and live service games at the same time.
@PapaGlitch I am pretty sure it will be beneficial for the quality because of that as well.
I did notice they currently have 58 open positions
Lets?
Is this a British thing?
Next Up: Haven. Deviaton is actually expanding too.
Going to make it the insomniac of Europe.
Purchased a month before Covid to turn into office space. I bet Sony grabbed a bargain on this.
Apparently there working on a second psvr2 title on top of the pancake games there making,bodes well as the persistence was a cracking 1st try with what was seriously average tech.Again could the AAA flat game be a psvr2 hybrid title what works in flat but works as a vr title also which Sony has said they're pushing for in the future
@GamingFan4Lyf Sorry!
Yes, it means to rent.
These guys are pretty much from the original Liverpool Studio. So why did Sony close them only to acquire them 10 yrs later
@theMEGAniggle Same reasons some sports teams sell players only to require them years later. Strategies and leadership change, and sometimes it's right person wrong time. Life is complicated
@GamingFan4Lyf Also had to reread the title a couple times, and still had no idea what it meant. Of course from reading the article I understand what it's supposed to mean, but it seems like a very odd way to say it.
@theMEGAniggle
SCE weren't the healthiest financial company in 2012, and the parent company as a whole was only just starting to recover from previous decade of bad leadership .
Obviously Sony as A whole are flush in money again now and throwing alot of money around not just in gaming
@themightyant @Anthony_Daniels I see.
@XinGViruS English in England is weird man
@get2sammyb Never heard of that one! It looks like the title is half finished.
Sony Studio Firesprite Lets Colossal Liverpool Office...
...go bankrupt?
...develop a new IP???
So many questions lol.
@get2sammyb
Oh... I was thinking it was a typo for "gets."
It's great to see Sony expanding their studios.
@Octane my first through was ‘let’s them go’ or something to that extent too hahaha.
Cool.word up son
I opened the article only because I read the title 5 times and still couldn't understand..
But... remote working was supposed to be the inevitable future!
Yeah, right.
@Art_Vandelay yea they still have to solve the motion capture via $20 webcam problem, lol.
Can we now have Psygnosis back please Sony?
Godzilla had a stroke trying to read that title
@RavenWolfe81 lol yeah, that...
But really, creative endeavors that require collaboration are particularly prone to suffer from the lack of constant physical gathering.
@Art_Vandelay oh I agree. Just seems like this studio is as big as it is because the games they're making can't be done remotely. Which is fine.
Sounds like a rebirth of Psygnosis/studio liverpool. Let's hope it goes better than last time.
Hoping we hear more about the horror game and Twisted Metal reboot soon, only 2 I'm interested in.
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