Sony Promises It Hasn't Abandoned the Famous Franchises from Its Past 1
Image: Push Square

While the history of PlayStation has always been about its continuous reinvention from generation to generation, some enthusiasts have taken umbridge with the platform holder’s apparent reluctance to revisit franchises from its past.

This discourse peaked during around the release of Astro Bot; while many felt the Team ASOBI platformer was a wonderful celebration of an iconic gaming brand, others felt the game was spitting at them, celebrating series like Ape Escape which will never get another shot in the spotlight.

Co-CEO Hermen Hulst, speaking with Famitsu magazine (via Google Translate), insists that’s not the case: “The various IPs that we own are an important asset to PlayStation, and as part of our efforts to strengthen our portfolio, we are continually looking at opportunities to leverage past IP, as well as develop new franchises.”

The executive went on to explain that his company’s priority is to publish games by the “world’s best creators”, and insinuated it’ll continue to work alongside independent outfits like Team Ninja (Rise of the Ronin) and Shift Up (Stellar Blade) to publish exclusives from outside its internal network of first-party studios.

“We have achieved many successes so far by working closely with external development studios,” he beamed.

We wonder if there’s any possibility of the platform holder simply licensing out some of its legacy IP, a bit like SEGA has done to huge success with titles like Streets of Rage 4.

There has been hints it’s willing to do this in the past: FantaVision was handed off to Cosmo Machia a couple of years ago, and next year Freedom Wars is getting a remaster from Dimps and Bandai Namco. As long as the games are good, we don’t think it matters much how they make their way to market.

[source famitsu.com]