Sony Interactive Entertainment has just announced PlayStation Studios: a new brand that encompasses all titles exclusive to the PlayStation brand. A 17 second opening video will soon appear at the start of Sony's first party titles. The video contains characters from Uncharted, LittleBigPlanet, God of War, Ratchet & Clank, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and The Last of Us.
In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment Eric Lempel explained the reasoning behind the move to unite their first party titles under the PlayStation Studios brand, especially the most iconic ones.
“Over the last few years -- and even the last decade -- the strength of the titles coming out from our studios has been stronger than ever," Lempel said in the interview. "We have been thinking about how we unite all of these great games under one brand, and really the purpose of that is to make the consumer understand that, when they see this brand, they're getting ready for a robust, innovative, deep experience that they've come to expect from games coming from PlayStation. So, we came up with PlayStation Studio.”
The PlayStation Studios cinematic is reminiscent of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “comicbook pages flapping” visual, but Lempel emphasized that over time, “we can tailor that opening a bit to possibly show the franchise over the years, new characters that have come into play... There's a lot we can do that we're really excited about.”
The logic behind the move is pretty self-explanatory: it’s undeniable that Sony has an obvious lead over its next largest competitor, Microsoft, in terms of acclaimed titles, whether critical or commercial. Microsoft itself has started to embed itself with first-party titles through their Xbox Game Studios brand. This move will just further cement Sony's association with their console’s biggest titles. This is also evident in Sony's move to include the PlayStation Studios branding when their titles are eventually ported onto different platforms, like Horizon: Zero Dawn's imminent jump to PC. This is very timely now that the next generation of consoles is dawning and the acquisition of studios and IPs is becoming top priority.
