PlayStation Studios

PlayStation Studios (formerly SCE Worldwide Studios and SIE Worldwide Studios) is a division of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) that oversees the video game development at the studios owned by SIE. The division was established as SCE Worldwide Studios in September 2005 and rebranded as PlayStation Studios in 2020.

PlayStation Studios

Formerly	SCE Worldwide Studios (2005–2016) SIE Worldwide Studios (2016–2020)
Company type	Division
Industry	Video games
Founded	September 1, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-09-01)
Headquarters	San Mateo, California
Key people	Hermen Hulst (CEO, Studio Business Group)
Number of employees	≈4,000[1] (2022)
Parent	Sony Interactive Entertainment
Subsidiaries	See § Studios
Website	playstation.com/en-us/corporate/playstation-studios/

History

On September 14, 2005, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE, now known as Sony Interactive Entertainment), the video game arm of Sony, announced the formation of SCE Worldwide Studios earlier that month, combining all studios SCE owned at the time. Phil Harrison was appointed as the division's president.^[2] Shuhei Yoshida succeeded him in May 2008.^[3] When Yoshida moved to lead the indie game development of SIE, Hermen Hulst, previously of SIE's Guerrilla Games studio, became the president of SIE Worldwide Studios in November 2019.^[4] The studios productions are generally supported by the Visual Arts Services Group, founded in 2007 in San Diego.^[5]

SIE announced the rebranding of the division to PlayStation Studios in May 2020 as part of the introduction of the PlayStation 5, which was released later that year. PlayStation Studios serves as the publishing brand for Sony's first-party development studios, as well as for games developed by studios brought in by Sony in work-for-hire situations.^[6]

In 2022, Sony stated half of its first-party PlayStation Studios games will be on personal computers (PC) and mobile by 2025.^[7] In August 2022, SIE announced the formation of the PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, alongside the acquisition of the company's first mobile development team, Savage Game Studios,^[8] later renamed Neon Koi.^[9]

In February 2024, Sony announced it would eliminate 900 jobs, or 8% of SIE and PlayStation Studios employees. These cuts included the closure of London Studio.^[10][11]

In July 2024, Sony and Bungie announced that as part of restructuring at Bungie, one of the studio's incubation projects would be spun out, with the team behind the game forming a new studio within PlayStation Studios.^[12][13]

Studios

Name	Location/s	Founded	Acquired	Notes
Bend Studio	Bend, Oregon	1993[14]	2000[14]	Developer of the Syphon Filter series and Days Gone[14]
Bluepoint Games	Austin, Texas	2006[15]	2021[16]	The studio specializes in video game remasters and remakes, such as Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Shadow of the Colossus and Demon's Souls[14]
Firesprite	Liverpool	2012[17]	2021[18]	Developer of virtual reality titles for PlayStation VR and titles outside of PlayStation Studios's main offerings[14]
	Manchester
Guerrilla Games	Amsterdam	2000[14]	2005[14]	Developer of the Killzone, and Horizon series[14]
Haven Studios	Montreal, Quebec	2021[19]	2022[19]	Developer of Fairgame$[20]
Housemarque	Helsinki	1995[21]	2021[22]	Developer of Super Stardust HD, Resogun and Returnal[14]
Insomniac Games	Burbank, California	1994[14]	2019[23]	Developer of the Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, and Marvel's Spider-Man series[14]
	Durham, North Carolina[24]
Malaysia Studio	Kuala Lumpur	2020[25]	—	Support for first-party titles, such as The Last of Us Part I and MLB The Show 22[26]
Media Molecule	Guildford	2006[14]	2010[14]	Developer of LittleBigPlanet series and Dreams[14]
Naughty Dog	Santa Monica, California	1984[14]	2001[14]	Developer of Jak and Daxter series, Uncharted series and The Last of Us series[14]
Nixxes Software	Utrecht	1999[14]	2021[27]	Support studio known for porting games to Microsoft Windows, development support and game optimization[14]
Polyphony Digital	Tokyo	1998[14]	—	Developer of Gran Turismo series[14]
San Diego Studio	San Diego, California	2001[14]	—	Developer of the MLB: The Show series for multiple platforms[14]
San Mateo Studio	San Mateo, California	1998[28]	—	Support studio for second-party developers[29]
Santa Monica Studio	Los Angeles, California	1999[14]	—	Developer of God of War series[14]
Sucker Punch Productions	Bellevue, Washington	1997[14]	2011[14]	Developer of Sly Cooper series, Infamous series, Ghost of Tsushima, and Ghost of Yōtei[14]
Team Asobi	Tokyo	2021[lower-alpha 1]	—	Developer of The Playroom, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Astro's Playroom and sequel Astro Bot[31]
Valkyrie Entertainment	Seattle, Washington	2002[32]	2021[32]	Support studio for various franchises such as Infamous, God of War and Twisted Metal[14]
XDev	Liverpool	2000[33]	—	Works with external developers with third-party projects, such as Until Dawn, Detroit: Become Human, and Rise of the Ronin[33][34]
	San Mateo, California [citation needed]
	Tokyo

Former

Name	Location	Founded	Acquired	Divested	Fate
Bigbig Studios	Leamington Spa	2001[35]	2007[36]	2012[35]	Closed[35]
Evolution Studios	Runcorn	1999[36]	2007[36]	2016[37]	Closed[37]
Firewalk Studios	Bellevue, Washington	2018[38]	2023[38]	2024[39]	Closed[39]
Guerrilla Cambridge	Cambridge	1997[40]	—	2017[40]	Closed[40]
Incognito Entertainment	Salt Lake City, Utah	1999[41]	2002[41]	2009[42]	Closed[42]
Japan Studio	Tokyo	1993[14]	—	2021[43]	Reorganized within SIE, primarily to Team Asobi[30]
London Studio	London	2002[14]	—	2024	Closed[11]
Manchester Studio	Manchester	2015[14]	—	2020[44]	Closed[44]
Neon Koi	Berlin	2020[8]	2022[8]	2024[39]	Closed[39]
	Helsinki
Pixelopus	San Mateo, California	2014[14]	—	2023	Closed[45]
Studio Liverpool	Liverpool	1984[36]	1993[36]	2012[46]	Closed[46]
Zipper Interactive	Redmond, Washington	1995[47]	2006[36]	2012[47]	Closed[47]

See also

• Bungie
• PlayStation Productions

Notes

1. Team Asobi was first established in 2012 as an internal team of Japan Studio, and was spun off as its own independent studio in 2021.^[30]

References

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External links

• Official website