Woah! I just found this really cool site:
http://www.worldwidestudios.net/homepage
Apparently Sony now have an official page dedicated to their worldwide studios iniative. It has quite a few interesting insights, like that fact they apparently don't own Clap Hanz (Hot Shots Gold guys), while I have assumed the opposite for quite some time now (thanks to Wikipedia! =/).
Go here to find a list of every studio they own, and details about each. As you can see, Team ICO isn't on the list, as they're included under SCE Japan. Surprisingly, Bigbig Studios is on the list despite technically being a subsidiary of Evolution Studios. Also, Bigbig and Evolution are still listed separately from Studio Liverpool, which means that the "merger" between the two entities was merely a physical move. They still work on their own separate projects.
Here is the total breakdown of internal development:
Studios: Europe
Bigbig Studios
Cambridge Studio
Evolution Studios
Guerrilla Games
London Studio
Studio Liverpool
Studios: Japan
Japan Studio
Polyphony Digital Inc.
Studios: USA
Bend Studio
Foster City Studio
Naughty Dog
San Diego Studio
Santa Monica Studio
Zipper Interactive
It includes every studio I recall except Clap Hanz, which apparently is merely a second party affiliate. Notice that Incognito is now no longer on the list. It also seems the reason we never hear anything from Sony Foster City is because they primarily assist other studios in development, and have helped out on Ratchet, Resistance, Uncharted, Socom, and others in the past.
...
To answer the actual topic at hand, my favorite Sony studio is easily Team ICO, and I do consider them their own studio, as they are generally given free reign to do what they want. It's basicall Ueda and 40 or so of his hand picked guys doing their best to turn his brilliant ideas into fully realized video games, and I love them for it.
Naughty Dog is my second favorite studio, and the only two that come close to Naughty Dog are Sony Santa Monica and Guerilla Games. If Killzone 3 is even better than Killzone 2, Guerilla will probably firmly plant themselves as my third favorite Sony developer.
When it comes to second parties, Media Molecule are on top, and that won't change if they keep pumping out games as loveable and fun as LittleBigPlanet. Insomniac com in second for Ratchet & Clank.
