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PlayStation has acquired yet another game studio, with Studios boss Hermen Hulst announcing on Wednesday that The Playroom developer Firesprite is now a Sony studio.
Firesprite becomes the 14th member of the PlayStation Studios group. This is the third studio that Sony has acquired this year, following the buyouts of Returnal developer Housemarque and PC port specialist Nixxes Software.
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“I couldn’t be more delighted to welcome Firesprite to the PlayStation Studios family as our 14th studio! Quite a few members of Firesprite come from SIE’s Studio Liverpool and we’re thrilled to welcome them back,” Hulst said in a blog post.
SIE Studio Liverpool was previously shuttered, so it is a homecoming of sorts for the developers who moved to Firesprite and are now back at Sony.
“Firesprite is a creative and ambitious studio that is exceptional at building incredible experiences that truly showcase the potential of our hardware,” Hulst said. “The team’s technical and creative capabilities will be paramount to growing our stellar catalogue of exclusive games, and I think you’ll be excited for what’s to come.”
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“Today is an incredibly exciting day for Firesprite as we join PlayStation Studios with the backing of Hermen and the entire PlayStation Family. We are very much looking forward to the next part of our journey!” Firesprite managing director Graeme Ankers said.
“PlayStation also gave us the opportunity to create our own IP, The Persistence, and we were given the creative freedom to explore, innovate, and release a survival horror game we are immensely proud of. Now, as a first party studio, we know we have the full support of PlayStation in furthering our heritage of combining creativity and technical innovation to offer some truly unique experiences for PlayStation fans.”
“We can’t wait to show you what we have been working on……we’re just getting started!”
Firesprite has 250 employees, according to GI.biz, so the studio brings a considerable workforce to Sony. “What I really like, is that Firesprite has grown so much. It is now a substantial developer of over 250 people,” Hulst told the site. “They’ve really established an entrepreneurial spirit as an independent team. They’re very experimental in their approach to game development. I think the combination of that legacy, and that entrepreneurial spirit… that’s a great foundation for us to collaborate on the few great exclusive game projects that we’re working on together.”
The announcement of this acquisition comes just one day before Sony’s big PS5 games showcase event on September 9, though whether or not any projects from Firesprite are shown off during the event remains to be seen.
Hulst said in an interview that he doesn’t believe there is an “arms race” going on right now between Sony and Microsoft when it comes to studio acquisitions. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax in a blockbuster $7.5 billion deal that will bring Starfield to Xbox exclusively.
