Sony has acquired yet another game development studio, bringing on Bluepoint Games to become the company’s latest internal game developer. Bluepoint most recently developed the Demon’s Souls remake for PlayStation 5. The studio also developed the PS4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus and has a history with Uncharted with Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection.
“Bluepoint has built a name for itself by creating some of the highest-quality remasters and remakes in the industry,” PlayStation boss Hermen Hulst said. “With each of its projects, Bluepoint has raised the bar on console-defining visuals and gameplay, and the studio’s vast expertise in world building and character creation will be a huge plus for future PlayStation Studios properties.”
While Bluepoint is known for its remasters and remakes, the studio will make an original title for PlayStation as its next game.
Bluepoint president Marco Thrush said in a statement, “Becoming a part of PlayStation Studios, empowers our team to raise the quality-bar even further and create even more impactful experiences for the PlayStation community. Thanks to everyone who’s supported us throughout the years – we can’t wait to bring you more amazing games in this next chapter for Bluepoint Games!”
Bluepoint has around 70 developers and is based in Austin, Texas.
“Our next project, we’re working on original content right now,” Thrush told IGN. “We can’t talk about what that is, but that’s the next step in the evolution for us.”
While most of Bluepoint’s work over the years has been on PlayStation properties, the company was hired by EA to develop the Xbox 360 version of the original Titanfall.
Sony’s acquisition of Bluepoint is not totally unexpected, as it was rumored back in June when the company bought Returnal developer Housemarque. Sony has been on a buyout spree, of sorts, as it also recently acquired Firesprite, the UK-based team made up of former SIE Liverpool developers. Before that, Sony acquired PC port specialist Nixxes Software. In total, Sony now has 16 internal game development studios. Microsoft has been starting and buying new studios of late, too, and it now has 23 internal game studios–including Bethesda most recently.
Hulst told IGN that Sony is not simply buying more game studios “just to be bigger.”
“We’re only buying teams because we feel that together, we’re going to make something that is going to be even better than if we did it separate from one another,” Hulst said.
The executive went on to say that Sony might look to buy even more studios down the road. “We are open always to building new relationships or bringing people in-house, but only if we adhere to the quality-first mentality and the right kind of innovative content, new experiences, diverse experiences,” Hulst said. “Because all of these teams, they share a lot, but they’re also very different from one another, and that’s what I really like. And I think that’s what the PlayStation audience, the PlayStation fans, deserve, it’s that diverse slate of games coming out of PlayStation Studios.”
Source: Gamespot
