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Forums - Sony Discussion - Sony acquires FireSprite Studios

TheWalrusCaesar on 08 September 2021

Know nothing about this company. Interested to see what they’ll make



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drkohler on 08 September 2021

Wonder what the mood is for some of the developers. They came from Sony Liverpool, got sacked, found a new workplace and now Sony is back ruling over them...



Signalstar on 08 September 2021

And Sony still hasn't officially announced the Bluepoint Acquisition...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1gWECYYOSo

Please Watch/Share this video so it gets shown in Hollywood.

PotentHerbs on 08 September 2021
Signalstar said:

And Sony still hasn't officially announced the Bluepoint Acquisition...

Could be saving that for tomorrow!



hinch on 08 September 2021



Sounds like they're building up for a AAA game for this studio.



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mjk45 on 08 September 2021
Dulfite said:
Kyuu said:

Buying "2nd parties" is precisely why Sony's acquisitions aren't frowned upon. The harm done to non Playstation consumers is minimal. Sony get the benefit of expanding and future proofing some of their IP's without concerns over the availability of the developers associated with these IP's.

Insomniac's purchase in particular was a smart move to keep Spider-Man locked to their platforms for the time being, as Marvel wouldn't want to soon risk leaving the only developers to have ever made a hugely successful Spider-Man game.

Funding 2nd parties and helping them make a name for themselves does come at the risk of having a 3rd party purchase or "rent" them for their own projects later on. Acquiring studios gives them more control, and eliminates a number of potential problems (including but not limited to Microsoft buying them).

Makes sense for them to do it. Definetly a preventitive move. I just doubt Sony would be buying some of the studios they have bought had Microsoft not gone on a spending spree. Some of them they would have bought either way, I suspect, but others were dependent on this climate we find ourselves in I think.

This purchase was clearly aimed at PSVR2 and since VR is something that MS clearly isn't involved in it is definitely not a preventative move.

Last edited by mjk45 - on 09 September 2021

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Pemalite on 08 September 2021

Industry is clearly consolidating... And Microsoft and Sony are focused on inorganic growth via acquisitions, then will likely provide these studios with additional resources/technology/infrastructure to create additional organic growth.

Wondering when Nintendo will start doing some acquisitions, it's got $14~ billion smacko's in the bank at the moment...



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

Robert_Downey_Jr. on 08 September 2021
Pemalite said:

Industry is clearly consolidating... And Microsoft and Sony are focused on inorganic growth via acquisitions, then will likely provide these studios with additional resources/technology/infrastructure to create additional organic growth.

Wondering when Nintendo will start doing some acquisitions, it's got $14~ billion smacko's in the bank at the moment...

This Sony one and their past one are quite organic.  Usually Sony will buy studios that they published most of their games beforehand anyway so they were already exclusive and funded



I am Iron Man

fauzman on 09 September 2021
Dulfite said:

I feel like Sony has been making these kinds of purchases (studios already working with them almost/entirely exclusively) as more of a prevention of Microsoft buying them up. It's a weird opposite: When Microsoft purchases a studio, it feels like it is expanding with additional exclusive content, whereas when Sony purchases a studio nothing really changes as these studios already were focused on making Sony exclusives. I'm not criticizing anything, just pointing out that Sony is more on the defense from my perspective. Why else would Sony buy up a studio that was already making exclusives for them if not to prevent someone from buying them up that would prevent their games from being on PlayStation? Microsoft is really the only major threat there. I doubt Sony would care if a third party company had bought out Insomniac, Firesprite, or any other studio they've obtained in recent years because then they could still arrange for those studios to make exclusive games for them. The only one that is threatening the status quo is Microsoft, so Sony seems to be on the defense by locking down these pseudo-independent studios and making them first party studios. Obviously my view is based on more of a general view of their purchases and not all-encompassing.

For context about this studio, here are games they made:

The Playroom2013PlayStation 4 with PlayStation Camera
Run Sackboy! Run!2014PlayStation Vita, Android, iOS
The Playroom VR2016PlayStation 4 with PlayStation VR
Air Force Special Ops: Nightfall2017PlayStation 4 with PlayStation VR
The Persistence VR2018PlayStation 4 with PlayStation VR
The Persistence2020PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows

Game we know they are working on:

Theaters of War game mode for Star Citizen (a game that will no doubt release for the PS10, XboxOneTwoThree, and SViwtch.

I don't think the purchase of this dev, or even the other more recent ones were an attempt to stop MS gobbling these up. I think it is more likely that Sony have recognised that the ballpark this gen has completely changed, and that they face much stiffer competition in MS with Bethesda.

While last gen they were able to sit back and rely on the Xbox One self-destructing, they no longer have that to rely on. Their answer, as always since the middle of the PS3 days, is to woo gamers with great games. This contributed to the PS3 catching up with the X360, and the PS4 to extend its lead in the latter half of the 8th gen. With Sony now facing a stronger MS (with Elder Scrolls and the like in their hands) , they are aware that their games need to be better than ever. Therefore they are purchasing these studios to bring more and better games for the PS5. The number of exclusives we see this gen are likely going to dwarf any gen and I guess they are hoping their large number of exclusives prove a match for MS. Looking at Firesprite, i think this dev will likely do PSVR games mostly, though with this number of developers, they will have multiple IPs. 



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Vendrom on 09 September 2021
twintail said:
PotentHerbs said:

Could be saving that for tomorrow!

Begs the question why not just keep FireSprite's announcement for the event too.

I don't see it happening; it doesn't really make much sense to keep BP acquisition at the event when they're a studio who have shown very little independent developing prowess. 

If it does happen, I hope the focus on their acquisition is kept to like a maximum of 20 seconds lol

We can assume that if they announce the acquisition of Bluepoint in the event, they will also have something to show there like their next remake. In Firesprite’s case, maybe they didn’t have anything to show for now so they announced it just like Housemarque and Nixxes. Still the fact that soon after the PS Japan tweet Bluepoint put an emphasis in them being an independent studio makes me believe that any acquisition talks were put on hold or turned down.