It’s reasonable to assume that after Activision Blizzard’s acquisition by Microsoft, PlayStation would be standing out in the open, vulnerable to Xbox’s 30+ studios, who are currently working towards developing exclusive triple-A titles for the green team, but Sony is here to dissuade you from that erroneous thought train. The Japanese gaming company has just fished yet another developer for its line-up of first-party collaborators, and it’s a big one.
In a blog post, Sony boss Hermen Hulst announced that Jade Raymond’s Haven Studios is now officially part of the PlayStation Studios. Raymond is one of the most well-known game designers out there, having worked on highly successful franchises such as Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs, in addition to founding Ubisoft Toronto and EA Motive, both of whom have worked best-selling titles over the past few years, Far Cry 6 and Star Wars Squadrons among them.
“As a SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) first-party studio, we will have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world’s most renowned development teams, including studios like Guerrilla, Naughty Dog, Media Molecule, and Insomniac Games, the creators of games that have inspired us as players and developers for years. We’re excited to learn from these world-class studios, as well as the exceptional central creative, technology, and marketing teams whose expertise will enable us to deliver even better games to players,” Raymond said in a statement.
As unconventional as it might sound, Raymond’s next game will be a multiplayer title, though there’s no telling when Sony will decide to reveal it to the PlayStation community.
The news of this purchase comes after Bungie’s acquisition in a $3.6 billion deal, and something tells us it won’t be the last of Sony’s consolidation attempts in the months to come.