Sony Acquires Firewalk Studios in Latest Purchase of Gaming Studios
Sony has recently acquired Firewalk Studios, a game developer based in Bellevue, Washington. Although the amount of money involved in the transaction is unknown, the acquisition means that Sony now has twenty “first-party studios” which develop exclusive games for the Playstation.
Firewalk Studios was founded in 2018 and has not released its own game to date. However, the studio is made up of experienced game developers who have worked on popular titles such as “Destiny”, “Mass Effect” and “Call of Duty”. They claim to produce AAA-quality games and are currently working on an unannounced multiplayer game which Sony has already agreed to publish this year.
Internal demos of Firewalk’s upcoming game must have made a good impression on Sony, leading them to acquire the studio in a similar manner to how they purchased Haven developer studio over a year ago. Though these studios are yet to release trailers for their upcoming games, Sony seems to be banking on the success of their developers.
Notably, Sony has also prevented major takeovers of its direct competitors, citing concerns of anti-competitiveness. The company is opposed to Microsoft’s plans to take over US gaming company Activision Blizzard. Sony claims that the takeover may raise prices, harming independent developers, and risk Playstation users switching to Microsoft if the takeover of “Call of Duty” series, belonging to Activision, is approved.
Despite Microsoft’s assurances that “Call of Duty” games will still be available on Playstation post-takeover, Sony remains vigilant in preventing their competitors from gaining an edge in the gaming industry.
