PlayStation Acquires AAA Multiplayer Developer Firewalk Studios - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 20 April 2023 / 7,495 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it has acquired AAA multiplayer developer, Firewalk Studios, from ProbablyMonsters.
Firewalk Studios is developing a live service AAA multiplayer game for the PlayStation 5 and PC that was announced in April 2021.
The studio was formed in 2018 by Bungie veterans and has grown to nearly 150 employees, according to GamesIndustry. Firewalk Studios is the 20th developer to join PlayStation Studios.
"I’m excited to announce that we’ve expanded our relationship with Firewalk Studios and are thrilled to welcome them to PlayStation Studios," Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst. "Firewalk is home to a remarkably talented team of creatives who have launched some of gaming’s most celebrated experiences, and they’re already hard at work on their first original AAA multiplayer game for PlayStation.
"Since announcing our publishing partnership with ProbablyMonsters and Firewalk in 2021, we continue to be impressed by the team’s ambitions to build a modern multiplayer game that connects players in new and innovative ways. The studio shares our passion for creating inspiring worlds grounded in exceptional gameplay, and we want to continue to invest in their mission. We’re excited for Firewalk to bring their technical and creative expertise to PlayStation Studios to help grow our live service operations and deliver something truly special for gamers."
Firewalk Studio Head and Game Director Tony Hsu and Ryan Ellis added, "Over five years ago, we jumped at the chance to set up a new studio and build a new IP from the ground up. Recalling our own favorite times with games, we founded Firewalk Studios around the idea of delivering memorable moments – those amazing, had-to-be-there times shared with other people. Our goal is to deliver those shared moments of joy to players around the world.
"Building a new studio at scale has been an incredibly exhilarating and relentlessly daunting task. Fortunately, we’ve been supported by great partners throughout – ProbablyMonsters helped turbocharge us in setting up the studio, and Sony has been supporting our project and our creative vision from the beginning.
"We’ve assembled some of the most inspired talent in the industry to deliver awe-inspiring new worlds and experiences filled with great core gameplay. The excitement of building something new for players has thoroughly energized the team and our partners, and we’ve been playtesting every day.
"Today we’re taking the next natural step and joining PlayStation Studios. We’ve worked closely with Hermen and the very talented team at PlayStation for years, helping to make our new game even better. To join PlayStation Studios is to formally become part of a family that has produced many of the most storied games of our age, and we are honored.
"We want to thank everyone who’s supported us along the way and those looking forward to our future. It’s been an incredible journey so far, and we can’t wait for the next chapter in this adventure."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I guess they like whatever it is that they're working on.
Most likely even before release.
Ok, so they are buying the rest of Bungie =p
This is normal industry cycles.
-Developer becomes successful.
-Publisher buys developer.
-Some of the experienced Dev team leaves and forms new developer.
-Developer becomes successful.
-Publisher buys developer.
It's this constant cycle that keeps injecting money into the industry that drives new ideas, new functional teams.
Which is why we shouldn't be afraid of Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo/EA/Ubisoft etc' buying up developers.
Buying small independent studio I totally agree, major publishers and multiple holder of IPs I'm not that supportive.
Even publishers it happens, you will have talent leave and pursue/start new opportunities after receiving a fat paycheck.
I know there will be people leaving and opening new studios, that happens even without anyone buying the publisher. But once that publisher is bought by a platform full control of its IPs belongs to it and that can be a great loss.
Really, what is a publisher but a bunch of studios. Whether you purchase a big Studio like Bungie or a bunch of smaller successful studios, its the same thing. The industry as a whole is in no danger of real consolidation if you look at all the new dev studios that have open up and senior, lead and creative developers forming their own studios allowing new heads to take control and show what they got. If you are worried about not having access to some IPs then I suggest you get on that company platform. That is how the industry works.
Yes tell me how many small devs of under 150 employees would someone need to buy to equate ABK.
That is business. The guy with the bigger pockets can and has always been able to make bigger moves. No different then being the market leader. As I have stated before. Its not MS fault Sony cannot do the same money moves or take advantage of publishers coming up for sale. If a publisher is up for sale and they are successful, it would be stupid for MS to not try to obtain them just because Sony pockets is smaller. Its not different that MS cannot make money moves in Japan because of Sony dominance, its business. You complain about one because you are a Sony gamer but not the other but they are all the same, its business.
Sure it is business, but you are the one defending the two moves as equivalent. And it isn't.
Indeed, fully agree, buying big publishers is bad for this market.
Also, i belive many people that support ABK deal would start to be against "publisher buying" If Sony made a move on something like T2 or Capcom.
People complain all the time about everything but in reality if you want to experience all the games, you need to get on all the platforms. If Sony bought Capcom and made all their games exclusive, then people who own only a Xbox and want to play Capcom games will need to get a PS. Its pretty much as simple as that. As a consumer you need to make the decision if you care about those games or not and make a decision. There are tons of games on the PC, I am sure many Xbox and PS only gamers have made decisions on whether or not they need to get a PC and play those games or they are satisfied with what is offered on the system of choice they play now. This is how the business is and how competition is carved out in the gaming space.
a total goalpost move, yet again.
ten+ years ago it was "stop buying studios MS, create new ones from scratch"
then it was "only buy second party developers and things like that"
now its "anything but large publishers"
BTW Bungie was not some small independant studio, so I am quite sure you raged at that purchase, right?
The only reason I get irked when they do, is due to IP's becoming beloved over time or yearned more for, and then they are left to the wayside to rot or studios that needed their whole team to make a game special are then split apart and we almost never get that same concept or idea again.
Look at Westwood for example, we haven't had a C&C as good as Red Alert 2 in decades.
If people want to leave on their own accord from an existing smaller studio, before it's bought out, that's fine, but when they leave after they are bought out is concerning, because it often implies said person does not agree with the new and bigger leadership values (which I will never stop seeing as an ever-growing problem in this industry).
Yeah, hearing you.
Red Alert 3 was definitely dumbed down for the consoles... But one could argue that RTS is a dying genre anyway. (At-least outside of mobile.)
But in regards to Westwood specifically... Many of the crew went on to form Petroglyph games which made 8-bit armies and the command and conquer remastered titles.
...But some left for Blizzard Entertainment.
And another bunch went on to form the small studio "Jet Set Games" which eventually collapsed.
Some went on to build Oculus games, some went over to Microsoft and are helping develop the current Age of Empires games.
It's the constant investment, boom and bust cycles that keeps the industry fresh and interesting...
Because without it, we just get Call of Duty, Battlefield and Assassins Creed each and every single year.
Yes, but when the remaining half went on to forming Petro, that studio did go on to making other RTS games, but the majority of them were either mediocre, fallen flat or just average (I know, because I own most of them, and they really don't hit the notes that RA1-2 were hitting at their respective times).
See even now, some of Starcraft 1-2's teams have split off to make their own RTS game, one that is seemingly geared at once again trying to tackle the e-sports RTS side of the genre, instead of what made SC great and fun.
This also makes me notice that sometimes there are devs within a studio that have bad ideas that are often kept in check by those that make good decisions.
So when the bad dev leaves and goes onto forming their own studio, we get concepts like wanting to chase the RTS e-sports sub section, one that none of the RTS fans are asking for and one that is unsustainable in this current time-frame (the genre like you said is dying, and e-sports proved in the past that it quickened the demise, and I don't see that changing now).
Boom and bust cycles will always happen, I know this, but at the same time, I look at say, the RTS genre and see that it's been more bust than boom, which also tells me that quick formations of studios that also disintegrate just as fast, are bad for the industry.
But pem, we HAVE been getting a new CoD nearly every single year, and Ubisoft still hasn't stopped with Assassins Creed, and Battlefield still isn't going anywhere just yet either.
Heck, we're starting to see signs of the indie side of the industry becoming repetitive with the souls-likes, rogue-likes, open world survival games and such. Buying out those same studios isn't going to stop the bad repetition, it just accelerates it in a different format.
Doesn't mean all initiatives will pan out.
We can take Bullfrog for example that made the amazing Dungeon Keeper games... EA closed them down, but many of the Bullfrog developers went on to form Lionhead Studios...
Many developers from Lionhead went on to form Media Molecule (Little Big Planet), 22Cans (Godus), Two Point Studios (Try point hostpital).
And then we got equally amazing Black and White and then we got Fable from Lionhead.
So we gamers actually got a ton out of those investments and closures.
So it actually does work out some times.
Or we can take Infinity Ward, Activision bought them out, so some of that team went on to form Respawn Entertainment which gave us Titanfall and Apex Legends.
My point was that, yes we still get Call of Duty/Battlefield/Assassins Creed. - But without the constant investment that starts new developers... That will be all we get.
Developers and more specifically publishers really dislike taking financial risk.
RTS is definitely having a resurgence at the moment...
Company of Heroes 3, Homeworld 3, Age of Empires, Tempest Rising from THQ Nordic/3D Realms.
I’d say they haven’t made a decent game since the Crescent Hawks Inception 😂
Congrats to both parties!
I didn't expect Firewalk to be next since Deviation looked like a first-party already judging by the studio's interior and Ballistic Moon had seemingly erroneously been bundled with other PlayStation first-party studios in a job description, alongside other minor hints about a potential acquisition.
Firewalk, as well as Haven and Savage Games have been Sony's latest acquisitions and are studios with no released game as of today. It feels like they are shifting their focus from long-standing partners to start-ups with a focus on multiplayer, but I'm not sure it can work that well. Just look at V1 Interactive (Disintegration) which was shut down shortly after, Relentless Studios (Crucible) and Lucid Games (Switchblade & Destruction AllStars), though Lucid seems to do well as a support studio.
They bought most if not all of the small long time partner, now if they would buy would be multiplatform studios/pubs that may have made exclusives (3rd or 2nd party) so now they are looking into fostering smaller studios that aren't proven (something I have asked MS to do, but most here in VGC prefer MS buy big proved studios because of reasons).
In a way, having bought these studios feels as if they were founded by Sony. I’m just pointing out that it’s risky and could harm one or more of these studios if their debut game underperforms, which isn’t impossible considering that the market for multiplayer games is very aggressive and PS Studios haven’t released a big hit multiplayer game in years. Hopefully, Sony has long-term plans for these teams.
On that I can certainly agree that is a riskier option, but also likely much cheaper and result on the bet can also be quite good (or terrible).
maybe they are thinking of trying to build a cod killer :)
I don't think it is necessary for them to kill COD in order to create a successful product in a similar space.
More organic growth.. cool.
Nice, I bet deviation games is next.
Probably Monsters just made out like bandits, not saying that it’s a bad deal for Sony but they just sold them a brand new studio that hasn’t even released a game yet.
Deviation is probably next for Sony.
They sold them top tier talent who has worked on Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Mass Effect, Overwatch... great win for Sony and ProbablyMonsters as studios are nothing at all without talent.
Herman Hulst had already played their upcoming game a few years ago. It's not like they're buying a studio with zero clue on what they're making,
now that the ABK deal is close to be done, Sony is not afraid to spend their money on every Multiplayer developer they could find.
This was likely already under contract before ABK deal was announced, it was some type of milestone contract with purchase agreement.
