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]

In October 2024, Sony announced the closure of Neon Koi and Firewalk Studios.^[14][15]

Studios

Name	Location/s	Founded	Acquired	Notable releases
Bend Studio	Bend, Oregon	1993[16]	2000[16]	Syphon Filter, Resistance: Retribution, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Days Gone[16]
Bluepoint Games	Austin, Texas	2006[17]	2021[18]	Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Shadow of the Colossus, Demon's Souls[16]
Firesprite	Liverpool	2012[19]	2021[20]	Run Sackboy! Run!, Horizon Call of the Mountain[16]
Guerrilla Games	Amsterdam	2000[16]	2005[16]	Killzone, Horizon[16]
Haven Studios	Montreal, Quebec	2021[21]	2022[21]	Fairgame$[22]
Housemarque	Helsinki	1995[23]	2021[24]	Super Stardust HD, Dead Nation, Resogun, Alienation, Matterfall, Returnal[16]
Insomniac Games	Burbank, California	1994[16]	2019[25]	Spyro, Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, Marvel's Spider-Man, Marvel's Wolverine[16]
	Durham, North Carolina[26]
Malaysia Studio	Kuala Lumpur	2020[27]	—	Support for first-party titles, such as The Last of Us Part I and MLB The Show 22[28]
Media Molecule	Guildford	2006[16]	2010[16]	LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway, Dreams[16]
Naughty Dog	Santa Monica, California	1984[16]	2001[16]	Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet[16]
Nixxes Software	Utrecht	1999[16]	2021[29]	Microsoft Windows ports of Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Spider-Man[16]
Polyphony Digital	Tokyo	1998[16]	—	Gran Turismo, Motor Toon Grand Prix, Omega Boost, Tourist Trophy[16]
San Diego Studio	San Diego, California	2001[16]	—	The Mark of Kri, NBA, Pain, MLB: The Show[16]
San Mateo Studio	San Mateo, California	1998[30]	—	Support studio for second-party developers[31]
Santa Monica Studio	Los Angeles, California	1999[16]	—	Kinetica, God of War[16]
Sucker Punch Productions	Bellevue, Washington	1997[16]	2011[16]	Sly Cooper, Infamous, Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yōtei[16]
Team Asobi	Tokyo	2021[a]	—	The Playroom, Astro Bot[33]
Valkyrie Entertainment	Seattle, Washington	2002[34]	2021[34]	Support studio for various franchises such as Infamous, God of War and Twisted Metal[16]
XDev	Liverpool	2000[35]	—	Works with external developers with third-party projects, such as Until Dawn, Detroit: Become Human, and Rise of the Ronin[35][36]
	San Mateo, California [citation needed]
	Tokyo

Former

Name	Location	Founded	Acquired	Divested	Fate
Bigbig Studios	Leamington Spa	2001[37]	2007[38]	2012[37]	Closed[37]
Evolution Studios	Runcorn	1999[38]	2007[38]	2016[39]	Closed[39]
Firewalk Studios	Bellevue, Washington	2018[40]	2023[40]	2024[41]	Closed[41]
Guerrilla Cambridge	Cambridge	1997[42]	—	2017[42]	Closed[42]
Incognito Entertainment	Salt Lake City, Utah	1999[43]	2002[43]	2009[44]	Closed[44]
Japan Studio	Tokyo	1993[16]	—	2021[45]	Reorganized within SIE, primarily to Team Asobi[32]
London Studio	London	2002[16]	—	2024	Closed[11]
Manchester Studio	Manchester	2015[16]	—	2020[46]	Closed[46]
Neon Koi	Berlin	2020[8]	2022[8]	2024[41]	Closed[41]
	Helsinki
Pixelopus	San Mateo, California	2014[16]	—	2023	Closed[47]
Studio Liverpool	Liverpool	1984[38]	1993[38]	2012[48]	Closed[48]
Zipper Interactive	Redmond, Washington	1995[49]	2006[38]	2012[49]	Closed[49]

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.^[32]

References

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External links

• Official website