Sony has announced the acquisition of Firesprite Studios, which now becomes the fourteenth first party developer in the PlayStation Studios lineup. Firesprite has previously worked on games such as The Playroom, The Playroom VR, Run Sackboy! Run!, The Persistence, The Persistence VR, and more.
“Firesprite is a creative and ambitious studio that is exceptional at building incredible experiences that truly showcase the potential of our hardware,” writes Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios. “The team’s technical and creative capabilities will be paramount to growing our stellar catalogue of exclusive games, and I think you’ll be excited for what’s to come.”
“As a first party studio, we know we have the full support of PlayStation in furthering our heritage of combining creativity and technical innovation to offer some truly unique experiences for PlayStation fans,” writes Graeme Ankers, managing director of Firesprite.
Most notably, Firesprite – a studio comprised of over 250 employees – is staffed and led by several alumni of the former Sony first party team Studio Liverpool, the creator of the WipEout series. Why is that notable? Because, interestingly enough, recent leaks have claimed that a new WipEout game is currently in development for PS5 and the next PSVR. Whether or not that and Firesprite’s acquisition are related remains to be seen.
Firesprite Studios is PlayStation’s third acquisition this year, following Returnal developer Housemarque and PC port specialist Nixxes Software. Earlier this year, PlayStation Japan itself seemingly leaked an acquisition of Bluepoint Games, but that hasn’t yet been officially announced.