PlayStation hasn’t declared war on Xbox to see who buys more studios
The Japanese company has just taken over the reins of Housemarque, and maybe soon Bluepoint Studios.
The recently announced purchase of Housemarque by PlayStation Studios may reopen the debate on whether or not there is a war between the major companies in the industry to arm themselves with as many studios as possible. Such concern has reached the ears of Hermen Hulst , head of Sony’s internal studios, rejecting the idea of “an arms race” with Xbox and other companies.
They are very, very specific purchases of equipment that we know wellHermen hulst“We are very selective with the developers that we incorporate,” he assures in a chat with the British magazine British GQ collected by IGN. “Our last acquisition was Insomniac [ for $ 229 million in 2019 ], so everything is going quite well. We are always looking for people with whom we share similar values , and creative ambitions, who work very well with us that we can invest in. and help them grow as creators. It’s not like we’re always hanging around and making random purchases . These are very, very specific purchases of equipment that we know well, “adds the head of PlayStation Studios.
Already going into talking more in detail about Housemarque, Hulst recalls the enormous collaboration that has taken place in recent years between the external development group of the Japanese video game firm and the parents of Returnal, both in technical matters, as in production management and even on the most purely creative side.
At the moment the details of the Housemarque and PlayStation Studios agreement have not been disclosed, a movement to which the acquisition of BluePoint advanced by a wrong publication of PlayStation Japan could be added in the next few hours .
Last purchases of studies
The Housemarque purchase, as well as the still unofficial BluePoint purchase, comes at a time of continuous movements in large companies. Among them is the sale of Bethesda to Microsoft for 7.5 billion dollars that shook the sector a few months ago, and which had its first major event at E3 2021 . But they are by no means the only operations we have experienced. For example, the news of THQ Embrasser Studios taking the reins of new teams such as Gearbox is continuous, while the purchase of Codemasters by EA was also sounded .
