PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst has said that recent PlayStation acquisitions aren’t an “arms race” and that Sony isn’t really taking development teams off the market. Instead, Hulst insists that the company is helping to stem teams so that they can grow. Hulst made these remarks in an interview with French YouTuber Julien Chieze, during which he reiterated that Sony only acquires studios that fits PlayStation Studios’ culture “like a glove.”
PlayStation Studios acquisitions will continue
Sony has previously said in no uncertain terms that it’ll continue to acquire developers that fit well into PlayStation Studios. Hulst told Julien Chieze that Sony was already working with some of the studios it acquired, and that the reason for bringing them in-house is that it helps the company to “stand up a studio much faster and much more rigorously than keeping them external.”
“We recently acquired Haven and that’s our first studio in Quebec, first studio in Canada, founded by – amongst others – Jade Raymond,” Hulst said as an example. “We were really impressed with their ambition level, with their creative vision, and I think bringing them in-house actually enables us to help create a studio.”
Apart from acquisitions, Sony is also actively collaborating with external studios like FromSoftware.