Firesprite joins PlayStation Studios as Sony’s newest studio

Firesprite, a studio that has long worked alongside Sony on PS VR titles, is now part of the PlayStation Studios family.

Below is the text published on the PS Blog:

After years of close collaboration on several games, including The Playroom (PS4) and The Playroom VR (PSVR), it could not be more rewarding to welcome Firesprite to the PlayStation Studios family as our 14th studio! Some members of Firesprite come from SIE’s Liverpool studio, and we are happy to welcome them back.

Firesprite is a creative and ambitious studio that excels at building incredible experiences that truly show off the potential of our hardware. The team’s technical and creative capabilities will be key to growing our incredible catalog of exclusive games, and I think you will be excited about what is coming.

Welcome to PlayStation Studios, Firesprite!

A brief history of the “new” studio:

In 1984, with the collapse of Imagine Software, a new game studio was formed under the name Psygnosis. It stayed independent until 1993, when Sony acquired it as part of the strategy for the launch of the first PlayStation.

Under Sony’s wing, they created Wipeout, Lemmings and Colony War.

In 2000 the studio was restructured and renamed SCE Studio Liverpool, making licensed Formula One games.

In 2010, Sony decided to close the studio, and most of the staff split into three other studios: XDEV, an external development studio at Sony that supports and integrates technology across Sony’s other studios.

And in 2013, some of the former Studio Liverpool employees created Firesprite (which worked with Asobi Team on The Playroom games), while others created Playrise Digital, focused on mobile.

With today’s acquisition, Firesprite becomes Sony’s largest studio in the United Kingdom, with more than 250 employees. That is more than London Studio and Media Molecule combined.

In a good interview with GamesIndustry.biz, it was said that Firesprite is working on two projects: a big multiplayer shooter and an ambitious adventure game with a dark narrative. No other details about these games were given.

Read the full interview here: gamesindustry.biz