Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, has given 12DOVE a little more insight into what his team is looking for when it acquires new studios.
The talk comes off the back of an announcement that Sony has acquired another developer for its PlayStation Studios portfolio in the form of Firesprite. Sony worked with Firesprite on projects like The Playroom and The Playroom VR, before the developer launched its own IP, The Persistence.
This news follows in the footsteps of Sony acquiring studios like Housemarque and Nixxes, which contrasts with the high-profile purchases Microsoft has made in the likes of Bethesda.
"With the teams we've acquired recently, I happen to know the people very well, so I know what they're capable of, and I actually also know what they're working on," says Hulst in an interview with 12DOVE. "That privileged relationship that I have gives me a lot of confidence in the games coming out of these teams being really strong, and being very PlayStation Studios, in terms of the quality that we're after always – we're always striving for better games – but also the uniqueness of the experiences."
"It's all about the quality and the uniqueness of the gaming experiences. The fact that they're surprising... yes, maybe to the outside world, but maybe not to the people that have been working in it, that have seen Firesprite grow, and seen them add talent, and being able to attract the best talent in the industry, which speaks to a really strong and very inclusive and very welcoming culture."
Hulst adds: "Now's the right time to bring them to the family and double down on some of the incredible opportunities that we can collaborate on."
While neither Hurst nor Graeme Ankers, managing director at Firesprite, were able to give us any indication on what exactly Firesprite is working on, Hurst did say that with the new partnership "now we get an opportunity to work on some really interesting games, exclusive games within PlayStation Studios, that I can't talk about today in detail, but I'm very, very excited about it."
"I cannot wait to share with everybody in the world what it is that we're going to be doing next. But I would say it's absolutely right in the heart of what we do at Firesprite. It's bringing new experiences that are going to innovate and maximize platforms, and create magical experiences and universes that players are going to enjoy for years to come," added Ankers. "I cannot wait to be sharing more news about that soon."
Firesprite is the 14th developer to become part of the PlayStation Studios family.
Until we have more info on Firesprite's next project, here are the most exciting upcoming PS5 games confirmed for 2021 and beyond.
