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PlayStation buys Firewalk Studios

skyfall

Member
I like all this buzzword the pr teams throw in these press releases:

''team of creatives'' ''celebrated experiences'' ''new and innovative'' ''inspiring worlds grounded in exceptional gameplay'' ''truly special'' ''memorable moments'' ''creative vision'' ''awe-inspiring new worlds'' lol
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
Because this is the same right?

season 8 frozen face-off GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants
Sony and Firewall signed a 10 year contract with the 5th largest mobile provider in Lithuania and the 19th largest in Vanuatu to get this passed
 
Why people want Sony to buy more studios?

Shouldn't they build their own studios after bungie purchase?
Wouldn't that be better than going again and buying another studio.

edit: joke post just feynoob post reworded. sorry feynoob. lol
 
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Dick Jones

Gold Member
Why people want Sony to buy more studios?

Shouldn't they build their own studios after bungie purchase?
Wouldn't that be better than going again and buying another studio.
Not everyone wants the large third party publishers to be gobbled up. It fucking sucks. I've no issue with the untested companies or companies in partnerships with the major platform holders.

I think some of the comments is trying to stick it to the pathetic cheerleaders of consolidation and see if they like the medicine.
 

skit_data

Member
Why people want Sony to buy more studios?

Shouldn't they build their own studios after bungie purchase?
Wouldn't that be better than going again and buying another studio.
Buying studios that own no IPs and hasn’t released any games is pretty much as close as you can get to creating a studio, especially since the first game this studio is making was set to be published by Sony anyway.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Not everyone wants the large third party publishers to be gobbled up. It fucking sucks. I've no issue with the untested companies or companies in partnerships with the major platform holders.

I think some of the comments is trying to stick it to the pathetic cheerleaders of consolidation and see if they like the medicine.
It's all so intellectually dishonest, or ignorance. Pick one, or both.
 
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1 in 12 are good odds, but at the same time they would be saturating the market with this trash, and people will likely tune them all out.

Right now, COD, PubG, Fortnite and Apex are successful. Can the industry handle even more of these games? There are only so many of these players to go around. Halo came and went. They made it F2P, got 20 million users, and then everyone left after a week. I suspect the same thing to happen to all of these games especially if they launch at $70. If I was Sony, id be sweating bullets at the Suicide Squad reception because thats exactly what their games are going to look like lol. Not to mention looking at the insane sales of Hogwarts, GOW and RE4, and wondering why they invested so heavily in GaaS instead of traditional single player games. Spiderman 2 will literally be their only first party game this year. they shouldve had like 4 of these SP games out this year. they wouldve cleaned up.

My guess is that this is insurance policy in case MS takes CoD exclusive. they want to be ready with their own CoD or Fortnite clone.

P.S It's 12 games and there is factions, horizon mp, bend's new IP, insomniac was also hiring mp devs, Jade Raymond's new studio is doing GaaS, and their other manchester studio is also making a GaaS game. Deviation games, firewalk studios were 2nd party and likely were not included in Jim's 12 GaaS game declaration. MLB wasnt either. GT7 possibly, yes.

I wouldnt be surprised if GG, Insomniac, and other Sony devs are making multiple GaaS games.
Sony's single player output is not changing. They have expanded enough where they have several studios with multiple teams. And the biggest reason why GAAS games consistently fail is because most of them are low budget games that chased trends. Every publisher saw the success of a game like Fortnite and thought they could replicate it for cheap. Sony has the chance to the release high quality polished AAA GAAS games, . The odds of them succeeding are much higher compared to your average studio.

Halo was the only truly big budget AAA GAAS release to truly fail in the past few years. But that has more to do with gamers no longer being interested in playing arena shooters than anything. Gamers just want polished refined products on release, something Sony is known well for. I'm more of a single game player myself, but you can't deny that Sony has been lacking in the multiplayer department since the PS2 days, so I'm cool with them doing it
 
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Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Why people want Sony to buy more studios?

Shouldn't they build their own studios after bungie purchase?
Wouldn't that be better than going again and buying another studio.

Deviation games, Firewalk and Haven. All of them are funded by Sony to build their studio. These studios were searching for a partner back then.

You can say that these are all PS created studios.
 
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BoxFresh123

Member
Another Haven situation it seems. Hope we see at least a look at what these have all been working on if they have a showcase.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Damn that’s fire

Why people want Sony to buy more studios?

Shouldn't they build their own studios after bungie purchase?
Wouldn't that be better than going again and buying another studio.

Lmao this is building a studio. Signing them up for their first project and funding their growth, providing them with the tools and tech.
 
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ArcaneNLSC

Member
Why people want Sony to buy more studios?

Shouldn't they build their own studios after bungie purchase?
Wouldn't that be better than going again and buying another studio.
In a lot of these recent acquisitions Sony has funded their projects by giving them projects to develop before acquiring them especially some of the newer little studios to help them get off the ground and test their skills.
 

NickFire

Member
No track record so not excited. But I am cautiously optimistic. If they started working on a game as a partner two years ago, and Sony decided to buy them, it suggests Sony is happy with the work to date.
 

Kvally

Banned
Sony's single player output is not changing.
Sony said in 2019 that they want fewer games, yet bigger games. So it seems their intent is to do less single player games. I would rather they keep their focus on single player instead of GaaS. But it's their business, so whatever. Spider-Man 2 is out sometime this year, so another good single player game coming our way, then Wolverine 2024.
 
Why people want Sony to buy more studios?

Shouldn't they build their own studios after bungie purchase?
Wouldn't that be better than going again and buying another studio.
They’ve invested in this team practically since their creation. It’s been Sony’s money that has largely allowed them to function.

That’s why it wasn’t surprising to see them buy HouseMarque, Insomniac, BluePoint, Haven and others. Almost all investment was from Sony. It was their cash that helped them to grow.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Sony said in 2019 that they want fewer games, yet bigger games. So it seems their intent is to do less single player games. I would rather they keep their focus on single player instead of GaaS. But it's their business, so whatever. Spider-Man 2 is out sometime this year, so another good single player game coming our way, then Wolverine 2024.
And if you noticed, Layden is no longer with them.
 
It’s a fairly sized studio.

ProbablyMonsters selling the studio to Sony is interesting, since Sony was already funding the game. It was probably getting expensive to maintain the other studios.

Square-Enix and Capcom next”👀
Capcom keeps getting more and more expensive. Might cost more than what Microsoft paid for Bethesda. Square-Enix is getting cheaper than ever.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Sony said in 2019 that they want fewer games, yet bigger games. So it seems their intent is to do less single player games. I would rather they keep their focus on single player instead of GaaS. But it's their business, so whatever. Spider-Man 2 is out sometime this year, so another good single player game coming our way, then Wolverine 2024.
Worrying about Sony's SP games is the last thing I'd do, to be honest. These MP games are usually coming from new studios.

And in 2024, the following single-player SIE games are also scheduled:
  • Death Stranding 2
  • Lost Souls Aside
  • Rise of the Ronin
In addition to Wolverine and, assuming development problems went away, KOTOR.

So 4-5 single-player-only games in 2024. And that's before the Showcase, so there can very well be more.
 

Pelta88

Member
The interesting thing here is that Firewalk is made up of former Bungie devs. Which means Bungie's experience with SIE influenced their decision.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Live service by itself is not a problem. COD is live service. Countless games we enjoy are live service. It's often a problem when the game is designed around monetization. But live service does not automatically mean garbage. I think a solid 70% or more of my annual gaming hours are on live service.
I can agree with this. I put more hours into GT7 last year than any other game. Their live service model has been stellar so far.
 

HawarMiran

Banned
first i have to see what these studios are working on before i care. Haven and Firewalk didn't have their first outing yet
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
How are they working on a AAA game when they are basically an indie studio....
They're a studio with over 150 employees made up from Bungie, Raven, Respawn, etc, veterans working on a AAA FPS game that Sony was already funding/publishing.

Now completely first party and the studio will probably grow too.
 
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FrankWza

Member
Not everyone wants the large third party publishers to be gobbled up. It fucking sucks. I've no issue with the untested companies or companies in partnerships with the major platform holders.

I think some of the comments is trying to stick it to the pathetic cheerleaders of consolidation and see if they like the medicine.
This should be an accept/decline to enter gaf.
 
Sony said in 2019 that they want fewer games, yet bigger games. So it seems their intent is to do less single player games. I would rather they keep their focus on single player instead of GaaS. But it's their business, so whatever. Spider-Man 2 is out sometime this year, so another good single player game coming our way, then Wolverine 2024.
Never heard that quote, but Sony seems fine on the single player front for next few years. Next year, we got Rise of Ronin, Wolverine, and DS2. As long as Sony releases 2 premiere single player games per year on average, I'll have no complaints. Plus they've got good partnering deals with Square Enix with FF16 and FF7 2 (out next year)
 

Varteras

Gold Member
They must have more faith in this game than whatever Deviation is making.

Not necessarily true. There could be any number of reasons why Firewalk was purchased while Deviation hasn't been yet. I mean, it took Sony a year to buy Firewalk after they bought Haven. All three of these studios had announced partnerships with Sony in 2021, all three supposedly working on live service games, with Haven being first, Firewalk second, and Deviation third, IIRC. Maybe Deviation doesn't want to be bought or they are doing the same thing Housemarque did? Sony approached them in 2020 for an offer but both agreed to wait until after Returnal released the following year before they hammered out details. Sony not only gave Deviation the money to move to a better studio in California but also enough to open a second location in Canada. Near Haven, if I'm not mistaken. So clearly, Sony sees value in that studio. I wouldn't be at all surprised to get an acquisition announcement this year or next for them.
 
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