PlayStation says it’s planning more acquisitions following a slew of gaming studio purchases over the past few years.
Appearing on Episode 427 of the Official PlayStation Podcast, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan confirmed that the company is looking to continue to grow both organically through existing studios and through acquisitions.
“We acquired five studios during the course of 2021. We’re in discussions with Bungie and we have more planned. This is getting us into a cycle, a virtuous cycle where success begets success.”
The five studios Ryan is referring to are Finland’s Housemarque (Returnal), Netherlands’ Nixxes (PC port of Marvel’s Avengers), England’s Firesprite (The Playroom), the U.S.’ Bluepoint (Demon’s Souls remake) and Valkyrie Entertainment (contributed to 2018’s God of War). Of course, Bungie — the Destiny studio and original creators of Halo — is the highest-profile acquisition, a $3.6 billion USD (about $4.9 billion CAD) deal that was announced in January 2022.
The company’s most recent purchase, though, was Montreal’s own Haven, a studio founded by Canadian-born games industry Jade Raymond and several members of her former Google Stadia team. That was a particularly noteworthy purchase for PlayStation since Haven was only just founded last year and hasn’t yet released a game. The team’s first project is a brand-new multiplayer IP, although further details have yet to be revealed.
With all of these acquisitions, PlayStation Studios now consists of 18 teams around the world. While it’s currently unclear exactly what most of these studios are working on, this year’s God of War: Ragnarok from Sony Santa Monica is PlayStation’s next big first-party title. MLB The Show 22, from PlayStation’s San Diego Studio, was also just released this week on PlayStation, Xbox and, in a series’ first, Nintendo Switch.
Image credit: Bungie
Source: PlayStation Via: IGN
