Sony Acquires Firewalk Studios, New Team Behind Innovative Multiplayer IP

Wish they would buy even a single Studio that could develop a western RPG for them. Since, you know, most of the biggest IPs in that Genre wont ever release on Playstation again

Was kind of expected I would say. Working on that CoD alternative portfolio..

For Sony to be interested enough to actually buy them the game must be something special. Now I'm hyped for whatever that game is.

Damn! Not Square Enix 😔

This game has to be at least announced soon, right? If not straight up almost ready.

@get2sammyb Spiders, CD Project Red and Bioware.

@get2sammyb Larian Studios the guys currently making Baldurs Gate 3 hasn't been bought

Can't wait for someone to comment on how this acquisition justifies the ABK buyout 😂.
Surely now Deviation Games is next on the list.

On a side note, hope Sony acquires some proper single player developers after this, enough of live service and mobile devs acquired over the past year imo .

@Snake_V5 One day, hopefully after the massive success of FF16.

@get2sammyb Well they could build up a new one with all the Devs that left Bioware, Bethesda and so on over the years lol. Obsidian was a small start up Studio too once. Other than that...well CDPR, Larian Studios...

And here come the xbox people saying this is the same as buying ABK even though they never made anything yet

So basically a Dev creating one of those live service games for Sony then? 🙄

It's all abt GAAS now especially after this ABK stuff.....

Hope they balance both single and multiplayer games....and they don't run blindly for GAAS

@UltimateOtaku91 I think the massive success of FFXVI (which seems inevitable) is what ensures Squenix stays independent

@jimbouk dude they are already saying that. Also please single players games and something notable to protect would be nice

@Snake_V5 Publisher acquisitions are off the cards until the ABK deal closes. Would seem counter to everything Sony has said regarding blocking the deal.
If Square is on the table it will be quite some time before we hear anything related to it.

I only find multiplayer games enjoyable after I disconnect from other players in new and exciting ways so this is probably not for me, but I’m fine with that not everything needs to be for me.

I'll be shocked if they don't buy deviation games.

@Voltan Maybe, if so then Sony may instead choose to buy some shares like they did with From Software but more to deter takeovers from other companies.

Get your hands out of your pants, people. Sony's not buying Square-Enix. They already do good business with Nintendo, and Sony helps with development and promotion for stuff like Final Fantasy XVI regardless.

Anyway, this is probably related to the coming live-service/multiplayer push they have planned, considering they seemingly bought Bungie for the same reason.

This is their COD competitor I guess. Sony really have a lot of online projects cooking, be really disappointed if they're all run of the mill shooters.

I wish them well! Sounds like they got some great talent.

Ok.What about ember lab sony.word up sony

@jimbouk True but then again the ABK deal is over anyway, its going to go through so there should be no reason for Sony to not do the same anymore.

@Snake_V5 a big purchase like square enix will take longer to go through than a little purchase like this.

Today we're taking the next natural step and joining PS studios. I don't know what it is about those words, it just sounds so natural and perfect to me. I'm not big on multiplayer games at all tbh but I'm still cautiously excited to see what they're cooking up nonetheless, you never know

Another mp studio who cares.

@Snake_V5 as the ABK deal is looking more likely ,next year, expect Sony to be very aggressive in its business practices.

Doing the math, PS have at least 14 unannounced games that are at least heavily into the pre-production stage. I counted 14 studios that have not announced anything since their last games, and some of those studios will have more than 1 game to release.

Looks like we'll be treated to some good stuff this gen too

@tallythwack I hope so, I'd imagine Microsoft buying ABK will really fuel Sony.

nice to see sony continue with the organic growth

@Ralizah I burst out laughing at that!

But puts on pony hat why about Sony spending money on this purchase from the limited earmarked funds for acquisitions they had just before FF16 makes S-E stocks jump makes you think they're not going to buy S-E! it seems so obvious! /sarc

Makes sense to buy new studios to tackle live service games while most of the OG studios continue to work on single player games. Sony definitely needs to find that gold live service mine if it wants to keep its buissness strategy going forward.

Folks need to understand that these blockbusters single player game are only going to get more expensive to make, and at some point each game is going to have to sell an insane amount of units to pay for itself. If Sony has one or two games that make some of the success of games like Genshin or Fortnite, it will already help a lot financially.

I know it's the direction they're aiming, but I'm still kind of worried that everything we hear is multiplayer/service/multiplayer/service and after 16, spiderman, and wolverine there's not one known single player type game coming, and over a dozen service/online games. Heck even the one and only 1st party psvr2 game coming that we know about is online MP-only!

@Grimwood "Why do games have to always be "innovative"

Almost nothing in gaming not named Nintendo or VR has been "innovative" since 1999. "Innovative" is just an industry euphemism for "more detailed textures and models and improved lighting with more particle effects." And even Nintendo's innovation well ran dry.

@NEStalgia dude Sony making money hand over fist right now with the ps5 this is the best time to buy a publisher like square enix. Sony spent limited on a publisher or studio is probably 10 billion they can afford square and probably buy few smaller more studios.

You lost Me at multi-player live service....

@Wheatly that 5 billion number is the money Sony has on hand for acquisitions Sony can l add on to that number if they want.

@playstation1995 They could be next along with deviation games

@Areus yeah deviation games is probably brought too.

Another smart purchase by Sony as they attempt to stop GREEDY Xbox from buying up the world and creating a videogame monopoly. Xbox will stop at nothing until they are the only console maker in the world and PS/Nintendo go bankrupt. Hopefully Sony can keep doing what they can to create a fair and competitive video game market for everyone.

@gipsojo MS could keep spending sure, but they are likely just trying to take market share from Sony. Nintendo's reliance on 3rd parties is pretty small. I think like half (may be more?) of software sales on Switch come from Nintendo.

New studio or not Sony has a good track record of cultivating solid teams.

Compare that to MS who buy big names but have yet to prove they can manage them well. If they’re anything like EA then good luck to Bethesda!

Great! WHERE'S FACTIONS 2?????

@4kgk2 They had insufficient funds to buy S-E to begin with. They're not going to take on debt during a period of record high interest rates to buy a publisher they already have close deals with to reap all the rewards from with none of the cost and risk, and with little chance of that situation being changed, during a time when a big new release will increase the stock value and therefore purchase value of that publisher dramatically, when almost nothing that publisher has does anything to help them bolster their overarching goals of mp, cloud, and service expansion which is the theme of all their other acquisitions.

I can't stand Jim Ryan but the man's not a moron.

Deviation is for sure happening.

MONOPOLYYYYYY

MONOPOLYYY

@NEStalgia You do have to feel a little bad. Fanboys are sitting around furiously edging themselves, fantasizing about permanent Sony exclusivity for all SE JRPGs going into the future, and Sony is over here snapping up random companies nobody cares about because they're about to launch a small army of live-service multiplayer games, hoping they somehow stumble into a Fortnite-style sensation.

@Gelloh

I'm taking a flight to California and ask them

@SgtTruth What are you even talking about? What lawsuit? Sony did help shepherd Firewalk Studios, grow them, and now bought them. That essentially is growing your own studio. Comparing the purchase of Firewalk even remotely to Microsoft buying Bethesda and then turning around and buying ABK two years later is not even close. Sony would need to buy several dozen of these tiny studios to equal just Bethesda.

But but you see, Sony bought/former a single studio without a history of multiplat games, they’re just like MS buying out an entire publisher that out all their games on all platforms!
(Sarcasm notice)

@Magnus_Selene For me personally all the western rpgs that I care about are made by EA.

Surely this must be the studio whose work will be Sony's future CoD-killer title.

If it brings in money for good games then fine. But we aren’t hearing much about those good games unfortunately. Just this GaaS rubbish.

@GodofCapcom GET THEM!!!!

@Magnus_Selene
Couldn’t give a damn about western RPGs, just wish they hadn’t destroyed their relationships with so many of those wanting to make JRPGs.

Maybe I'm just too cynical, but I have to wonder if "impressed with their work" is just corpo speak for "will generate money", rather than "will be enjoyed by players".

@Magnus_Selene Bethesda hasn't been relevant for years lol. Their RPGs have been bad since 2006 too. Obsidian is hit or miss but they don't even have big franchises.

From Software RPG games will still release on PlayStation along with Capcom ones and whenever the next Deus Ex title is.

@NEStalgia I don't think that acquisition will happen, but how does taking ownership of FF14 not bolster their mp and service goals?

@Ralizah Yeah it'll never happen. Square Enix wouldn't want to lose the bigger audience it has on the Switch.

@Ken_Kaniff PS plus would be on its deathbed if it wasn’t for multiplayer so millions of people do 😂 ps itself would lose 1/2 and probably be worse off than nintendo

gaming was built off multiplayer like pong , 👍can’t wait for all the live service games $ony claims they’re gonna have .

Good Pick up, i am looking forward to seeing what online multiplayer games Sony has. Those games interest me longer than a single player game, even tho i do love a good single player experience and buy most of them of the 3 consoles. My time and money goes much further into a great online experience. I haven’t given Sony much of my time or money there in a long while, PS5 looks to change this.

No no no just.... no. Big NO to another multiplayer! That is plague. Plague that fills gaming world. Soon there will be 1 multiplayer game for 1 player, so who's gonna to play it? And what then? They finally understand that no one wants any new multiplayer crap???

Nobody wants more multiplayers. In addition, they are failing one after another and closing servers. Sony then go and invest lots of money in a studio that never released a single game to make a multiplayer. This is nonsense. Why not invest in Square-Enix, Level-5 or any other talented creators that can actually bring fresh single player experiences?

@jimbouk I know. It's ridiculous how people try to compare Sony acquiring individual studios they've worked with to Microsoft purchasing entire publishers

I am SO sick of hearing about acquisitions! Show me some future games for PSVR2 and I'll hand you my money!!!

@Intr1n5ic It's the wrong type of game for what Sony is looking to grow. Single subscription mmos like 14 are an old school model, that's not where the real money is, it's in mtx driven service games, not the old mmo model. It's an online service but it's not the growth area Sony means when they telk about the initiatives, or where they're investing with things like Bungie and fire walk.

Yeah 14 makes money right now, but the focus is a whole other model like Fortnite, Apex, cod, destiny, etc. Big money on whales in that market. Cod replacement money etc.

@__jamiie No one's crying - just pointing something out

@NEStalgia The first time Sony mentioned a massive live service focus for the future of Playstation Studios was soon after Microsoft announced the Activision acquisition.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/01/playstation-studios-is-developing-several-live-service-games

So Sony's gigantic live service push seems to be directly correlated to Microsoft getting away with a neverending acquisition spree. The concept of "what happens if we lose something like Fortnite, CoD or GTA to Microsoft?" probably came up after the Bethesda acquisition.

@get2sammyb Deviation Games who they are already working with , and another new studio Rebel Wolves which is made up of former Witcher and cyberpunk members.

@Phornix Bethesda and Obsidian are massively relevant and have huge franchises. You're just sad that you won't get to play them anymore.

(Here's the part where you also tell me you have a PC/Xbox and Game Pass)

🤣🤣🤣

@jimbouk I think they are next too I’m surprised they haven’t yet

Why buy Square Enix, when Sony are already locking down all their meaningful content, @Snake_V5. There's no need to buy the company when they already have all the content the want from the Developer as exclusive to the PlayStation...

@Grumblevolcano Probably. To be fair, they knew that was the golden goose and probably should have planned on making their own brands in the space long ago when they had some viable series for it, it was just laziness and using their market position to just rake in the third party cash for it.

But oh boy are they overcompensating....

@__jamiie Well if thinking that brightens up your day, knock yourself out then

@NEStalgia What you think they're trying to grow is based on what you read online. Part of their focus is clearly on landing a huge live service hit, but that obviously isn't the sole objective for them going forward. In the case of Square though, one game would give them access to a well established live service franchise that generates massive amounts of revenue every month.

@nomither6 Most of them will be a graveyard in six months. The vast majority of PS fan base doesn't want live service games. Guess Sony will have to learn the hard way. Look at Suicide Squad and almost every other new live service game nowadays. That ship has sailed.

@djlard lets hope that activision deal goes through, playstation doesn't need multiplayer

@Ken_Kaniff the most popular games in the world to date are live service but ill take ur word

@nomither6 Yea and the audience that wants live service games are already playing those successful games. They have no desire to leave Fortnite, GTA, Apex Legends, Destiny etc to start over on a new game. Thats why Suicide Squad and every other live service game announced recently get ***** on.

@PhantomMenace84 Yep and those games are the exact reason so many fail nowadays. The audience that wants live services are already playing the ones you listed. Their is no desire to start all over for a new one that is just a copy of the games you mention.

@PhantomMenace84 some people just wanna have one-and-done experiences and think that type of way of playing is gospel, lets just take his word for it over millions of people that like to compete and play video games with others.

personally if i just wanted story-driven narratives, id just read a book LOL

@Ken_Kaniff That same scenario cant be applied to single players ?

@Intr1n5ic Right, but it's EXTREMELY unlikely that a subscription MMO is a growth market they're looking to spend billions on. Yes the game generates decent revenue, but mmo isn't a growth area and isn't likely to be the thing they'd dump billions into right now. Plus they already get 30% of all console revenue on it for no cost without having to manage server growth or eventual decline.

Back the creators not the publishers. And this seems like a good group of people, even if it is for live service games that I'm maybe not as interested in

There is going to be a lot of great new studios making different kinds of impressive games over the next 5-10 years though, all the real talent has already broken away from all of the big companies and it could be a new golden age of gaming away from the mega corps.

@NEStalgia People have been saying mmo growth is dead since mists of pandaria, and yet here we are 11 years later with some of these games posting higher monthly numbers then ever before. As long as support and content keeps coming, there will likely be a market for mmo's for many years to come. Regardless, the purchase wouldn't just be about FF14, that's just one of their cash cows.

Sony get 30% of base game sales, and I assume a cut of the mtx bought through the PS store, they don't make anything from the 20 million active subscribers every month.

With the same level of excitement as painting your house. People always pick on Jim Ryan, but I think this Herman Hulst guy kinda stinks. He hasn't said or done one thing I'm keen on since he started sleepwalking through his postion.

@Ichiban You're not dissing "fiercely daring" Herman are you? IDK he's part of Horizon which of one of the best things they have. Yet 8 also kind of agree.

@Intr1n5ic Again, though, the revenue they'd be getting comes with costs, and doesn't move the needle on what they and the rest of the industry is looking for. Some mmo are successful but no company is rushing into the mmo market and the only company I can think of that's trying it is Sony with the horizon mmo. 1 is rare. 2 is a huge gamble. also don't know they're not getting money on subs and is unlikely that's true given what we've learned in general from epic v apple and the terms Sony has with epic and revenue sharing. We can't know for sure but we do know how Sony approaches such deals and that they're close with square.

I'm not saying that's not necessarily a plus instead if minus for them but it's also not something I can see them dumping their entire budget just to get, and that's really the only gain they'd get that they don't already have.

@Fiendish-Beaver Maybe from Sony perspective to stop anyone else buying them like Microsoft.

@NEStalgia

Almost nothing in gaming not named Nintendo or VR has been "innovative" since 1999.

😂 Well, if you mean that you hold something in your hands to interact with images on a display, then I guess yeah, it’s all just a prettier version of 1999 gaming… 😆

@twitchtvpat Rebel Wolves is getting funding from NetEase who also have stake in the company. So they are already technically taken as well.

@NEStalgia Of course it comes with costs, but so does every venture. Not many come with guaranteed monthly income. There are a lot more in the works than just Horizon, we have Ashes Of Creation, Blue Protocol, Dune, and Riots upcoming mmo to name a few.

Look, I don't think Square is a likely acquisition, at least not anytime soon, so we're debating hypotheticals here. I do believe though that when Sony budget again for the next wave of investments in spring 2024 that a big Japanese publisher will be one of the first they look at.

@Intr1n5ic possibly, though I can't think of any big Japanese publisher that's really in a sale position currently. Capcom is going from strength to strength, bamco has been performing solid, and is very close to Nintendo (they do a lot of second party work for them), some say Sega, but I don't see them anywhere in a sales position, and idk Sony would want a gambling company which is the bigger part of it. That's really all the big publishers in Japan. Konami needs to sell... Would Sony want to buy though? Not too much opportunity for buy in in Japan right now.

I don't disagree on intents really. I just can't think of compatible or available scenarios at least from 2023s numbers. Other than Konami, but....

@pyrrhic_victory It really does brighten my day. Because it's true.

Does anyone know when PSVR2 will be more widely available? I have a ton of vouchers so won't be buying direct from Sony.

Looking forward to seeing what they are making!

Speaking of acquisitions, it's disappointing Sony didn't acquire Ready at Dawn before Meta did some layoffs. They could have been really good for PSVR2 games and a wish of mine that would never come true, a new game to The Order 1886.

I don't think Microsoft would ever buy Square Enix, @Snake_V5. There is already enough animosity towards Microsoft and Xbox (there was already a lot even before the ABK acquisition) without them adding to it. If they were to buy were to buy SE then they would go from being disliked to absolutely hated, particularly so if they were to make the games exclusive. Even if they were just to make the games release on both platforms with absolute parity, those on the PlayStation would be very disgruntled because they like the fact that all the games are exclusive to their platform without the need to buy the company as it rubs it in the noses of the Xbox players even more...

@Fiendish-Beaver Lol. Do you really think Microsoft cares about public perception in case of Bethesda/ABK? It's about content for their platform. And if they decided to buy Capcom/Square/SEGA people would bitch and moan for few weeks and then they will buy an Xbox (or PC) if Microsoft made series like Final Fantasy, Resident Evil etc. exclusive.

Same as people moan about idea of TES VI being on PC and Xbox consoles only. Currently people are still holding hope that Starfield/TESVI and other Bethesda games will come to PlayStation after year or two on Xbox, but they will accept the reality.

Do you think that Sony cares about public perception of players "hating" on idea that they moneyhatted Final Fantasy? Nope. Their goal is to secure content for their platform, so people would buy their consoles. Same applies for Microsoft.

I guess you're right, @Godot25. I'm probably just going by my own standards, rather than that of a business...

It falls in line with what Sony are targeting in terms of content.

It’s an interesting one regarding a big acquisition like Square. I would argue Sony would be under even more scrutiny given they have the global market share from regulators. As much as Microsoft is purchasing, they are going from 3rd to 3rd in terms of revenue. Just feel like Sony acquiring anyone major would go through just as much scrutiny as ABK has.

@Ralizah "Nobody cares about" - translation: I'm ignorant about a lot studios and only care about big name publishers, even the ones like Zenimax who are well past their heyday.

(Deep shocked gasp) Sony purchased a studio working on a online live service multiplayer game!...Like they haven't done that a dozen times before.

@Jill_Sandwich how else do you enter a market? This is an oligopoly, if Amazon ever decided to push it's way in, you bet EA or Ubisoft are on the short list for any acquisition.

@Jill_Sandwich literally everyone bought their way into the gaming sphere, Nintendo just entered the market soon. That's a moot point.

@AverageGamer ah i didn't know that , i think they'll be a studio to keep eyes on though in whatever they make.