So happy about this. Returnal is one of my favorite games in years. Housemarque put themselves on another level with Returnal, and I immediately started saying how Sony, if they have any intelligence, should buy them. Glad I didn’t have to wait too long. ? Honestly, Returnal had some shortcomings that prevented it from hitting mainstream popularity/success, but it was so damn good otherwise that, esp with Sony’s backing, I would put money down that Housemarque are only one or two games away from a huge hit.

I thought the same thing. I hope it was a mistake. I mean, how hard would it be to just shrink the other banners a little bit to fit more of MM’s banner in there? I barely recognized what it was supposed to be. :(

They’ve already had another team working on a 2nd game during Returnal’s development. 

^ this.

Sony buy smaller-mid sized studios that show talent, and have established themselves as reliable, and also ones that worked with them before (ei. they know their team and how they are). Then they try to help them take the next step, so they grow in scope (games).

Microsoft tends to buy, high (if it was stocks). They like owning things that already were successfull.  Minecraft? Bethesda? ect.
Money isnt a issue for MS.

I think they have differnt management styles too.

Like it cant be a coincidence that so many studios that end up working for MS, suddenly start makeing multiplayer, GaaS type games.
Its clearly influence by MS or directioning (ei. being told "do this").

I think Sony is more hands off, and instead supportive of whatever teams want to try. They just have high standards, and will speak out, if polish is a issue.
(ms is more open to just shipping things, and then patching it down the line, its a GaaS type anyways)

IDR where I heard it from—I think from Colin Moriarty on his Sacred Symbols podcast—but I think what was said was “HM has also been working on a second game,” making it sound as tho there’s been simultaneous development going on for Returnal and this other game.

New Returnal content?? Any specifics?

Another great studio to join PS.

I really hope they expand to a point where they can do 2 games simultaneously. 1 AAA type game and another more similar to Resogun/Stardust etc.

I would hate if they stopped working on those type of games completely to focus on story driven games - Sony has enough of that.

Never really heard of them outside of the Returnal release. I believe i might of played one of their games, Think it was Nex Machinima or something along the lines. Seems they were already 90% PS anyway. More studios do equal more control so its a good for Sony, however the fans wont see a difference.

They were essentially second party with Sony publishing their games, now they have full backing as a first party developer. There's a lot both parties can benefit on being that both can share tech from one another and HM geting more funds for upcoming project and games. They must have started talks of acquisition before/during the development of Returnal and I'm guessing this is part of the result. Bigger budget game from their usual output (they were more Indie/arcade dev) the next games will get bigger as they expand and join the PS team.

But yeah, quite exciting stuff. Wonder if they'll look into other in-house engines like Decima or stick to UE.

This is quite untrue. There’s a long history of teams under Sony getting markedly better with time:  GG going from Killzone to Horizon; SSM going from a superficial GoW with dated gameplay to GoW 2018 that’s considered by many to be one of the best games of all time; Sucker Punch going from Sly to inFAMOUS to GoT; and obviously ND growing into the powerhouse they are now.

HM already stepped up their game massively with Returnal, but being allowed to grow and improve under Sony will almost without a doubt be seen by fans via even better—and possibly more—games. 

Well they were working on a Battle Royale game for a while, but my understanding was that they ceased production on that to focus on Returnal. Maybe the 2nd game represents that BR game, but I hope not, personally.