After knowing the announcement of this new brand, we reviewed each and every one of the teams that make up the first party lineup of PlayStation.
On the occasion of the arrival of a new generation of consoles, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced on Tuesday the creation of a new brand, PlayStation Studios, with which the Japanese firm intends to differentiate for the consumer what games are truly from their studios internal. That label, which will accompany the exclusive works of PS4 and PS5 from now on, will serve as a visual and communicative element, as Microsoft has already done with the Xbox Game Studios label. Let's take a look at the names that make up that lineup.
14 studios around the world: what is PlayStation Studios
Because behind that label there are many studies, numerous sagas already consolidated for a generation; But there will also be others that we will know from the coming years as soon as PlayStation 5 hits stores this Christmas. Sony has made this clear to its group of investors: despite the coronavirus, PS5 will come out this year. It will do it with games, as is logical; and everyone who is from PlayStation Studios will carry that logo. There are plenty of candidates, but the times are not chosen by us.
PlayStation Studios
Strengthening the PlayStation brand is what the company wants, according to statements by Eric Lempel, senior vice president and head of marketing for Sony Interactive Entertainment. “During the last years (and even the past decade), the strength of the titles that come from our studies has been reinforced more than ever. We have been thinking about how to unite all these great games under one brand. " Because its objective is to “make consumers understand” that when they see that logo, what awaits them is a “robust and innovative” experience. Let's forget about the old SIE Worldwide Studios; Hello to PlayStation Studios.
Naughty dog
We start with Naughty Dog because they are the next big stars this year. With more than 450 employees, the company led by Evan Wells dawns every day in Santa Monica, California, with a great legacy behind him. More than 30 years of games where long-standing intellectual properties stand out; generally with more than one delivery for each IP. Highlights include the Crash Bandicoot saga, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted or The Last of Us. His next video game is The Last of Us Part 2 and we will be able to play it on PS4 this June.
The Last of Us Part 2
Sony Santa Monica Studio
Founded in 1999, Sony Santa Monica has grown over the years until its recent change of study in the city of Santa Monica. Gone is that 2001 Kinetica, when a name came into the scene soon after that is part of the DNA of the company led by Shannon Studstill and Cory Barlog, the latter as director of God of War. It is Kratos the emblem of this name and it is this license from which we expect something more after the award-winning and celebrated God of War of 2018, a title that we were able to play on PS4.
God of war
Insomniac Games
They say that there is a key moment in the history of each video game studio where the state of maturity is reached. Insomniac Games did not belong to Sony until last August, when a courtship that had been enshrined since the end of the nineties ended up materializing so that this talented team led by Ted Price worked for PlayStation and only for PlayStation consoles. Remarkably, it is they who created sagas like Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance and the most recent of all, Marvel’s Spider-Man. It is from the wall-climbing that news is expected either on PS4, where the first title was released, or on the future PS5.
Marvel’s Spider-Man
Guerrilla Games
We left the west coast of the United States and landed in the Netherlands, where Guerrilla Games has managed to raise the bar during this generation to the point of rubbing elbows with the top three. Sales speak for themselves, but the quality of their latest title does, too. After its founding in 2000, the authors of Killzone and led by a Herman Hulst now promoted to head of PlayStation Studios, became a team of more than 400 workers last year, a team that is already working on their next project after that Horizon: Zero Dawn who has so well understood what players were looking for.
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Sony bend studio
From Oregon, United States, we found the company initially known as Blank, Berlyn and Co. and Eidetic, a studio founded in 1993 that Sony wanted to incorporate into its ranks back in 2000, when it was renamed as we know it now: Sony Bend Studio. Syphon Filter continues to be its most widely used IP, but its most recent work, Days Gone, has not only sold very well, but also seems to have left the doors open. In the absence of knowing if what they are now dealing with is a sequel or something else, from Sony Bend Studio they are already working on a new AAA game.
Days Gone
Sucker Punch Productions
Gone is that year 1997 when a small group of young Microsoft developers ended up founding Sucker Punch Productions; a name against the will of the wife of one of the members, as we explain in this special. In 2000 Sony acquired the company and, from there, its resume speaks for itself, always on the scale of the notable and still waiting for a real blow on the table that, perhaps, is about to arrive with the promising Ghost of Tsushima this July. Apart from this, they are in charge of Sly Cooper and InFAMOUS.
Ghost of Tsushima
Polyphony Digital
Polyphony Digital is synonymous with only one thing: speed. Gran Turismo is its shield, and we want a strong Gran Turismo for the next generation. With a saga that has experienced ups and downs in recent years, the legacy of the license created by Kazunori Yamauchi since 1998 has been responsible for the fact that this name has accompanied each and every one of the PlayStation's domestic platforms, without exception. They are already working on something new, a new Gran Turismo. In the absence of knowing if it is the seventh numbered title or an expanded version of Gran Turismo Sport, the green of the traffic lights is approaching.
Gran Turismo
Molecule Media
A different studio, one of those that flies the flag of abstract, light, color and creativity. Media Molecule resides in Guildford, Surrey, England. This is where the team of Siobhan Reddy and Alex Evans have been working since 2006 on what ended up being LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway and, finally, Dreams, a video game that has only just begun to demonstrate what its community can be capable of through that complete tool for creating experiences. A PS5 version is not ruled out, so imagination is the limit.
Dreams
Sony Japan Studio
SIE Japan Studio is one of the most experimental, fresh and important Sony equipment. Without a single director, several intellectual properties stand out here since it was founded in 1993 to complement the catalog of the first PlayStation. Ape Scape, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus or The Last Guardian; Gravity Rush or the LocoRoco, Puppeteer and Knack are just some of the names worth noting. They are also the main architects of Sony's VR experiences for PlayStation VR with the phenomenal Astro Bot. A real box of surprises from which we can expect anything on PS5.
The Last Guardian
Sony London Studio
Although it may not seem like it, Sony London Studio is also one of the veterans, a team of about a hundred people based in the heart of England and who has been commissioned in the past for works such as This is Football, The Getaway, the EyeToy, SingStar or his most recent work, Blood & Truth, which also served to accompany the first large batch of PlayStation VR games. A while ago we learned that they were looking for employees for a new AAA.
Blood & Truth
Pixelopus
Its name does not sound too much to us because it is one of the last companies founded by Sony Interactive Entertainment this generation. It was created in 2014 and has a couple of dozen workers in San Mateo, California, with Dominic Robilliard as its chief creative director. It is they who took care of Entwined and later Concrete Genie, his latest title, which did not convince us. In the future we will see more of his part, but at the moment there are no news about it.
Concrete genie
Sony San Diego
At Sony San Siego, also in California, there is talk of sport There is talk of baseball or whatever it takes, because in its beginnings, after being founded in 2001, they even took charge of works with an NBA license. They've been working almost exclusively on the MLB The Show for a decade, so we're not going to risk much thinking that next season they'll hit the bat again, which is what they do best.
MLB The Show
Sony San Mateo
Sony San Mateo is a particular case. Founded in 1998, this Californian team has been one of Sony's wild cards when it comes to internationalizing work; a study in charge of collaborating in those projects where any of the above needed help. For example, in Marvel’s Spider-Man, the Uncharted series or the InFAMOUS series are some of the participations that are known. Whether or not they will get a chance on their own is something we don't know.
Sony San Mateo participated in the development of Firepoint for VR with Impulse Gear
ForwardWorks
We end up with mobiles. It was around April 2016 when SIE announced the existence of ForwardWorks, this study located in Tokyo designed to gradually enter the mobile market using, as far as possible, the intellectual properties of the company. In the West we have not seen most of his creations, but a couple of years ago they already showed their intention to take their works beyond the Japanese borders.
ForwardWorks
